


Splash

by SerasKucheki



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 19:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 49,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerasKucheki/pseuds/SerasKucheki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel's life was going pretty well until the day his girlfriend left him. He didn't want to grow old alone and surrounded by rotting fruit so he goes back to a place from his childhood that always helped him feel better. Except this time he gets into an accident and runs into the person he has dreamed about for a few years now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Training

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off the movie Splash and I left in most of the same characters from the movie.

Training

                John and Mary had their differences about how they wanted to raise their children. It wasn’t really a big deal since they always found a common ground. At least that was the case before Mary had died. He had reasons to hate the two tailed before but after they were the cause of his wife’s death he had no reason to trust them. There were different jobs in the colony, he was a fighter, she was a finder. The finder’s job was to go out and find things that could help protect the colony or understand the two tailed more. However, Mary was always too trusting and too friendly when she got out of the borders where they deemed it safe. They weren’t the top predator, they still had things to worry about and fight in the sea which is why they never left the borders. He should have been faster and has never gotten over death.

                As their two kids grew up he made sure that the only thing his sons trained for was to become soldiers. He wasn’t about to let more of his family die by not knowing how to fight. To be a soldier meant that the merman had to show that they were ready and dedicated to the lifestyle. They never had a rule of how many soldiers had to come from each family because there was always one who wanted to follow in their parent’s footsteps. Dean was that child, he learned quickly, was fast, trained every day, and never disappointed him once.

                When he was eight it was his time to prove that he was ready to begin work with the colony’s army. There were some kin that thought that the army was useless nowadays since they had no more fights between other colonies and they had made sure predators wouldn’t come anywhere near their area. That is why there weren’t as many children ready for the test that day. Dean was one of them and listened to everything his father told him making sure to remember all the advice. He would not screw up this test because that would be letting his father down.

                The goal was just to go out and survive a day past the borders of the colony. It was a little easier with the natural predators knowing how dangerous the colony could be but that didn’t mean it was going to stay that easy. When everyone was gathered the terms were explained again before the group took off. Dean was ahead of the group and going straight. He knew the faster he was out of the border the longer he could test himself. It didn’t take too long before some of the others were slowing down but he didn’t. Once he broke past the signs of the border he finally began to slow down. The water felt different even though he knew it couldn’t have changed that quickly. He had swum along the line of the border to prepare himself yet it didn’t fully set in until now. He was in the two tailed territory.

                Dean glanced back to where the colony lied seeing a slow trickle of the rest of the group that was taking the test before he took a deep breath and went back to going straight out. He did hope that he would run into an enemy so he could be in a real fight but at the same time he knew it would be better not to test that until he had more time to train. Dean began to lose track of time as he continued to swim beginning to get curious with where he was. He had heard about the two tailed and was warned about them from his father. John never fully explained why but it wasn’t needed, he listened to him unconditionally and trusted him.

                What he didn’t expect was to find something barely submerged in the water traveling very slow in the distance. He furrowed his eyebrows and slowly swam closer to the foreign object. Dean couldn’t explain what it was since only so much of it was in the water and refused to go to the surface.

***

                Castiel Novak had always been the quieter son and loved the water. That is one reason why the family always came to Cape Cod so they could spend as much time near the water once a year. He was standing at the railing watching the water as they went by wishing that he could see something just once in the water. His mother, Eve had tried to gain his attention but after the first yell she knew he was already in his own world. She walked up to him setting her hand on his shoulder. “Castiel, we’re going to go inside to listen to the band. Do you want to come with?” she asked after Castiel had looked up at her.

                “No, I’m fine.” he answered looking over at his older brother and his dad who wasn’t paying attention to Gabriel. He was always strange and he was proving it right now. Eve looked over at where her son’s attention went too and saw the eldest. Gabriel had gold brown hair and light skin which he got from their father since their mother had darker hair. He was on his hands and knees, scattered change at his hands, and looking up a woman’s skirt.

                “Gabriel!” scolded Eve quickly going over to him and pulling Gabriel up to his feet. “I told you not to do that anymore.”

                Castiel didn’t bother with the situation and went back to looking out over the water. “I was just picking up my change.” smirked Gabriel a little because that was one of the best accidents he had a few months back. The first time it was an accident but ever since then it was the best accident to happen.

                Eve wasn’t impressed and looked over at her husband. “Chuck, tell your son that he shouldn’t be doing that.”

                “You know you shouldn’t Gabriel.” he said before glancing at Castiel with the obvious question in his eyes.

                “He doesn’t want to come, he likes the water too much.” she stated with a small smile before she grabbed Gabriel’s hand. “And you need to stop agreeing with me just because it’s easy.” she scolded her husband as well leading the older males of her family away.

                “I still think we should have brought Michael and Lucifer.” contemplated Chuck as he followed his wife.

                “Those two need to learn to get along.” she repeated once again. Even though Chuck was a cutthroat when it came to business, he really didn’t know how to control his kids all that much and she glanced once more at Castiel hoping he would be okay as they went inside.

                The water was reflecting the sun making it shine in some spots and made it difficult for Castiel to see what was in the water at times. He swore he saw some fish but then he suddenly saw something bigger than the other fish. Castiel leaned a little further over to see if he could catch another glimpse. It didn’t look exactly like a fish but it had a tail. His curiosity was spiking quickly and he soon jumped over the railing without thinking. The boat quickly came alive with people yelling man overboard.

                Under the water Castiel wasn’t scared let alone drowning. He felt just perfectly fine as he stared at the mermaid. Castiel knew it was a mermaid from the many stories he had read in books. The mermaid was the one who looked frightened but curious just like him. His tail was a darker green then his eyes and his hair was lighter than his brother’s.

                Dean couldn’t believe that a two tailed had jumped into the water like that but he looked like he fit in the water as much as he did. His tail wasn’t the same color as his eyes proving more differences between the two species. It didn’t stop him from swimming closer and reaching his hand out.

                Castiel responded setting his hand against Dean’s and they both felt a quick shock, like a spark but as soon as they made contact someone pulled on his shirt forcing him back to the surface. Dean showed complete fear as he quickly took off swimming in the other direction. One two tailed was fine but more than one had to be a death sentence.

                When the man pulled Castiel up to the ramp he reluctantly walked back up to where his parents were and a towel was thrown around his body. Eve wrapped it tighter around Castiel and when he finally got free he instantly went to the side of the boat. Castiel couldn’t really hear his parents or the people around them worried about him because he just wanted to see that mermaid again. Luckily, out in the distance he saw a head pop up out of the water. He didn’t wave just in case someone else would see him he liked the idea of keeping him a secret all to himself.

               Dean was taking a huge risk by being out of the water like this but he wanted to make sure the two tailed was okay. Their eyes connected just long enough before he dived back into the water and his tail was the last thing Castiel saw as a good bye.


	2. Night Out

                Novak Food Industries is well known because of the work Chuck had done to get the business famous. They were actually the main food supplier in New York City and that meant a lot of office hours and strain on the boss. It really didn’t help that not too long ago the oldest brother Michael who was running the business after their father died five years ago, passed away in a car accident leaving the position open to Lucifer, Gabriel, or Castiel. Lucifer couldn’t really take the position because after he had graduated, the fights between Michael and him had escalated even more and he left New York City without warning one day, almost like he had vanished since he didn’t warn anyone. It had scared everyone in the family but not Michael. The only one who had managed to get some contact from Lucifer over the years was Gabriel. The bad blood between Michael and Lucifer was still evident at Michael’s funeral because he didn’t show up. Gabriel wouldn’t take the position of running the business because he really didn’t like the food industry all that much and had his own agenda so it was down to Castiel.

                Castiel Novak had been there the whole time to learn the business from Michael since Michael knew he could trust him and that is why he took control without hesitation. He was actually getting used to things now, even the bad days. What Castiel didn’t expect was Gabriel hanging out more around the business but then again they always had a closer relationship than what he had with Michael and Lucifer. It would have helped more if Gabriel could have done work in the first month Castiel took charge but he quickly got the hang of things and now it was just nice to have his brother around. He really didn’t want to lose any more family. Sure their mother and Lucifer were alive but he just hated to lose family.

                Today was one of those bad days. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with the business his family had and one of the big ones was happening. The cherry shipments had gotten held up by a fog upstate keeping the truck from delivering the produce and those particular cherries were supposed to be given to Mr. McCullogh. Castiel was actually warned by Michael about this gentleman that every time a shipment went wrong, he would blow it out of proportion. So far he didn’t have to worry about it but now he was finding out what Michael had meant.

                “Where are my cherries?!” yelled Mr. McCullogh angrily as they stood outside of the garages where produce was being unloaded to be looked at to make sure only good produce was sent out to their destinations.

                Castiel should be giving McCullogh his full attention but like every other owner he still had other things to do. He had to move around to the other side of McCullogh so that he could get out of the way of a forklift moving a pallet of food. He was kind of dressed up in a suit since he was a boss yet most days he was running around the warehouse and helping out where it was needed so wearing an expensive suit was out of the question. Castiel was wearing a pair of khaki pants, a white button up shirt, tie, and a light jacket halfway zipped up. He was also holding a clipboard because he had just gotten done with checking the inventory to make sure he knew how much to charge McCullogh with the absence of cherries. “I’m sorry Mr. McCullogh but there was a fog upstate and there was no way the cherries could get here this morning!” explained Castiel loud enough so he could hear him.

                “If I don’t get my cherries in five minutes, then you don’t get my money, and you starve and you die.” glared McCullogh and emphasizing his point by jabbing his forefinger at Castiel every few words.

                Castiel knew that he had to find something to give him no matter if they’ve had the shipment for a while or it wasn’t the best shipment they could offer. He would give it a discounted price anyway for Mr. McCullogh having to deal with the factors of bad weather. There was a few seconds of silence between the two before Castiel did a small turn to yell, “Jerry?!” When he saw Jerry coming over he looked at McCullogh to give him the sign of waiting just a few more moments before he went over to Jerry. “Jerry, where are Mr. McCullogh’s cherries?” he asked him really needing to hurry with this so that he could get back to doing inventory. Gabriel was also planning on showing up today but he didn’t know why. All he knew is that his brother had tried calling him about twenty minutes ago exclaiming about a magazine and then he must have dropped his phone because he lost the call.

                “Oh well they’re here but…you got to take a look at this stuff I…” he tried explaining but it was really just that bad and shook his head trying not to look at Castiel’s face. Jerry knew Castiel hardly ever got angry with his employees if it was the farmer’s fault for the bad shipment but this was a whole new way to see cherries.

                Castiel sighed knowing this wasn’t going to go over well at all and he looked back over at the business man. “Mr. McCullogh…” he started calling out but hesitated trying to figure out how to say this without really telling him that there was a good chance he wouldn’t get any cherries, at all. “I’ll be right back!” he said turning to quickly follow Jerry.

              Mr. McCullogh wasn’t enthused as he took a couple steps toward the direction they left. “Where are my cherries?!” he yelled.

                It didn’t take long to get to the cherries but right at first glance there was no way he would ever buy something like this. They were slimy, small and might as well have passed as grapes. Castiel even tried picking one up and it didn’t feel hard, it sunk in slightly. He quickly dropped it back into the box. “I can’t buy these. The cherries were not obviously taken care of like they should have been.” he stated shaking his head. “I’m sorry but we cannot do business.” he said waving his hand and heard over the speakers that he had a phone call so he turned away to go answer it.

                Jerry was more than happy to follow that order. “Get these out of here!” he smirked at the guy trying to sell them.

                “You got it.” answered the man who was waiting to either take them to Mr. McCullogh or get them out of the warehouse.

                The cherry seller didn’t look that happy as he followed after Castiel who was reaching for the phone and trying to stay close to the invoice shack where the nearest phone was so a dolly could get by him. It was considered a shack since it was a wooden structure that you would see in a kid’s front lawn when they sold lemonade except this one had four walls, four openings for people to drop of invoices, and a swinging door at the back of it. After it had passed he straightened up, “Novak? Yes, thank you.” he said wondering what else could go wrong now. “Hello Anna, is something wrong?” he asked leaning back against the shack as he looked back at the cherry seller seeing how persistent he was going to be if he followed him all this way.

                “Look, you know we get a lot of rain and cherries get a little bit of slime.” he tried explaining to Castiel not caring that he was on the phone because for him this was a bigger problem.

                “Now, Anna I can’t hear you…” began Castiel grabbing the phone and turning to the side so he could try only focusing on her instead of the guy.

                “Hey, you agreed to take these off my hands.” he continued moving to the right so he could be in front of Castiel not giving up on him until the cherries were sold.

                Castiel moved the bottom end of the handle down near his neck in hopes that Anna wouldn’t hear the argument. “When did I agree to that?!” he snapped as the day, no morning was finally latching onto his nerves.

                The cherry seller rolled his eyes a little, “Not you, your brother.”

                As much as Castiel loved his brother, he really could be trouble every now and then and slowly nodded. “Uh huh…alright.” he said before he heard Anna on the phone again. “Anna, it is really difficult to hear you right now.” he told her again but he needed to finish up what was going on right now so he had to get off the phone.

                “This is very important Castiel.” she declared hoping that then he would pay attention better. It didn’t matter to her if he was still at work he had to know what was going on.

                “I know but what I’m doing is important too, call me back later.” he stated hanging up the phone so he could try to get one task done before his mind imploded on itself. “So my brother bought your slimy cherries?”

                “Yeah, me and Gabriel were playing poker. He had a two pair I had a flush, he had no cash, so uh, we worked this out.” he smirked because he still hadn’t figured out how to grow perfect produce over the years he has never given up. Hardly any of it has sold so he jumped at opportunities like poker games with horrible card players. People who weren’t good at poker would play until they were convinced they wouldn’t win it back.

                Right after the cherry seller had gotten done explaining that, a very loud and fast moving red sports car quickly pulled around the corner and decided that they could park in front of the ware house. The car didn’t stop until it hit a pile of crates making most of them fell over. A few seconds after the car stopped and a male climbed out of the driver seat. He was wearing a suit, a scarf hung around his neck, his hair was brown, the bangs were long enough to easily push back, and his hair barely touched his shoulders. “Who put this god damn food here?!” he asked loudly looking around for someone to pay attention to him and answer. “I’m alright if anyone’s concerned!”

               “Gabriel!” called out Castiel as he began walking over to his brother quickly and on the way there he had to pass Mr. McCullogh who was very close to ending his contract with the Novak’s.

                Gabriel looked over from where the voice came from and when he saw his brother he smiled widely. “Cassie! Cassie!” he exclaimed reaching back into his car.

                “Mr. Novak I need too…” began Mr. McCullogh.

                “One more second Mr. McCullogh!” demanded Castiel that time around barely sparing a few seconds glance back at the man as he continued on his way to his brother.

                Gabriel slowly came out from his car again closing the door and holding two handfuls of magazines. “I made it! I’m in Penthouse magazine! They printed my letter!” Castiel got beside Gabriel nodding a little at his excitement. “They printed my letter.” smiled Gabriel widely.

                “Yes, I’m very, very happy for you.” expressed Castiel but he wasn’t really happy for his brother at the moment. This whole headache only got worse because of his brother’s inability to stop gambling when he needed too.

                “I’m in the forum.” continued to explain Gabriel as he followed where his brother was leading him. “The story is titled, _The Lesbian No more_ , they printed every word I wrote, it’s beautiful.” talked Gabriel excitedly as he set down the whole stack at the invoice shack. “I want copies for everyone.” Gabriel then looked over seeing the cherry seller and smiled widely holding his arms out. “Augie!”

                “Gabriel!” he smiled as the two of them hugged and Gabriel took a step back.

                “It’s good to see ya. Great game the other day, we gotta do that more often.” declared Gabriel even though he didn’t mean a single word he was saying to Augie.

               “Gabriel come on.” urged Castiel trying to get his business done and he already knew his brother didn’t like the guy. Gabriel could stay friends with you for a long time but he could be one hell of a sore loser when it came down to it.

                “Great poker player.” he lied and now that his back was to Augie he was glaring at his brother showing his distaste for the other man. “Cheats like a son of a bitch.” he mumbled under his breath so that Augie couldn’t hear him.

                Castiel didn’t really care what he wanted to say about Augie, about the game or even the Penthouse magazine. “Gabriel, we have to talk.” he said.

                “What is it? Missing petty cash?” he asked. “It’s the cleaning girl.” he quickly accused.

                “I don’t care about that.” Castiel sighed.

                “No?”

                “No.”

                “Then it was me, I admit the whole thing.” smiled Gabriel glad that his brother didn’t care about it because now he didn’t have to feel guilty over something else.

                “I still don’t care about it Gabriel.” he assured him. It was his brother he would have helped him even if he asked.

                Gabriel wouldn’t let it go that easily though because his brother had a big heart which sooner or later would catch up to him but for now he enjoyed the fact that his brother could care so much about people. “I love this guy!” he declared loudly looking around to make sure he made some heads turn. “Do you hear me?! I _love_ him!” He focused on Castiel again a smirk forming on his lips. “Give me a kiss.”

                Castiel shook his head a little but he had a small smile on his face. “Oh no, Gabriel come on…”

                “Give your older brother a kiss.”

                “No.” interjected Castiel.

                “What’s the matter? You’re too big to give me a kiss? Come here.” he said putting his hand on the back of Castiel’s head having to pull him down a little to his level since Castiel was taller and kissed his head several times, making the sound of his kissing as loud as possible. Castiel didn’t bother to fight with him because there was no way in stopping his brother embarrassing him like this and it wasn’t that big of a deal, he liked how close they were. While Gabriel was kissing his head obnoxiously Mr. McCullogh finally walked in and raised an eyebrow at the scene before him. “I love this guys’ head.” he explained with a wide smirk and let his brother go. Castiel rubbed the back of his neck hating how he had to be so rough about it. “Hey curly, here’s a buck, go wash my car.” he demanded of Mr. McCullogh placing a dollar bill in his hand. Castiel was already walking away and Gabriel turned to follow.

                Mr. McCullogh angrily threw the dollar bill onto the ground. “Novak, where, are my…”

                Castiel knew he was beginning to forget something and turned back around to finish McCullogh’s sentence. “Mr. McCullogh, your cherries, yes. Ah…” he began but once again hesitated since he wasn’t sure of how to put it. The last time he did this he only got angrier and he didn’t want to lose business with him. “Believe me when I tell you this that you won’t be satisfied with what I have for you.” he said honestly not ever going to sell those cherries they’ll just be thrown away.

                “Okay Novak, you’re ruined. Everyone s going to know you left me dry. You’re finished. You’re a ghost in this business!” declared McCullogh more than ready to destroy their business. Jerry was reading a magazine right off to the side of them trying to be inconspicuous as he listened in on the conversation.

                Castiel had a backup plan pop up into his head. He knew that he couldn’t lose McCullogh and have him spouting out bad rumors of his business so he knew the one thing that most grocer’s would love. “How about I give you some bananas at cost?” he offered.

                Mr. McCullogh’s eyes widened slightly and quickly agreed. “Deal.”

                “Jerry, can you set up our friend Mr. McCullogh bananas at cost.” he ordered as he turned to walk away again.

                Jerry usually wouldn’t mind but he had to go against Castiel this one time as he set the magazine aside and quickly caught up to him. “Castiel, wait a minute.” Castiel stopped to look back at Jerry again having the quick thought of if he’d ever get back to his office. “I have to leave early today, remember?” he asked him.

                Castiel quickly felt bad about forgetting Jerry’s wedding and nodded placing his hand on his shoulder. “I totally forgot I’m sorry.” he apologized.

                “Now don’t forget, you have to be there early too.”

                “I’ll be there yesterday.” he assured him as Jerry waved and went to go get someone else on Mr. McCullogh’s bananas.

                Castiel couldn’t be happier as he got to the last obstacle before his office, his secretary’s desk. Gabriel was right behind him as he reached down to grab his mail. “Are there any messages Mrs. Stimler?” he asked her.

                Mrs. Stimler looked like she was busy cutting up pieces of paper and she set one aside nodding. “Ah, yes.” she smiled before focusing on her task again.

                The brothers both looked at her patiently waiting for her to continue. After a few seconds Castiel opened his mouth once but at the second time he finally spoke up. “What are they?”

                “Huh?” she asked looking back up at them before realization struck her. “Oh!” she exclaimed picking up a piece of paper. “Your father called, he wants you to call him back.” she smiled.

                “Uh…Mrs. Stimler, our father passed away about five years ago.” he explained motioning to Gabriel and him.

                “Right…” she nodded once trying to think of how to properly respond to that and looked from the boys to her desk to her phone. “Should I get him for you?” she asked happily.

                “No, no no we’ll, you just…” stammered Castiel trying to stay cool and collected about it. “Get back to work.” he smiled a little before walking into his office. Gabriel’s face had slowly changed from confusion to fear as he listened to Mrs. Stimler and almost didn’t want to take his eyes off her as he followed after Castiel into his office.

                Castiel’s office was very clean and in order. He even had a fish tank put in when he took over because he really loved the sea and fish. He just wished he knew how to swim so he could enjoy the ocean more. There were a couple pictures of their family but only one with Lucifer since there was really only one left. His desk was the messiest thing in the room since he didn’t have time to finish doing paperwork before he had to go downstairs and help Mr. McCullogh.

                Gabriel threw a magazine onto the pile and sat down in the chair while Castiel looked through his mail. “What’s with her?” asked Gabriel looking mostly confused and concerned.

                “Oh, she had a little accident over the weekend and got hit in the head by some lightning.” explained Castiel not having a reason to fire her because she could still do her job and he would feel terrible if he did that to her. Castiel should have known it was going to happen before it did because not two seconds after he said that Gabriel began laughing. “Come on, it’s not funny Gabriel!” he sighed as Gabriel continued to laugh. “It’s not funny!”

                “I’m sorry, that’s not funny.” agreed Gabriel, his laughter quickly subsiding. “It’s not funny.” he said more under his breath that time as he looked back at the door.

                “Besides, she’s okay she can still do certain things around the office.”

                “Like what? Jumpstart a car?” he asked breaking into laughter again. It was just too funny to pass up! “Jumpstart a car!” he repeated trying to get his brother to laugh. Castiel didn’t want to laugh and had turned away to feed his fish. Gabriel finally realized that he wasn’t going to laugh so his laughter began to die again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

                “What are you doing down here this time?” asked Castiel because it had been awhile since he had showed up.

                “Maybe I went to the Club A last night.”

                “Something new for you.” Castiel mumbled as he licked the end of a pen to help sign a couple of papers.

                Gabriel gave it a second before continuing. “Maybe I met Mr. Buyrite from Buyrite Supermarkets…” Castiel looked up at him intrigued. “Maybe we had a few drinks…and maybe, just maybe we’re his new produce suppliers.” he smirked at Castiel.

                Castiel couldn’t believe that Gabriel had gotten him a deal that big. “I’m proud of you! That’s great!” he smiled widely not knowing if his brother was ever going to really help him and this was definitely something Michael had been trying to do. He sat down glad he wasn’t sitting when he told him the news. “Which store?”

                “Not which store, the _whole_ chain.” he proclaimed.

                Castiel was really happy if he did get this but it also seemed way too good to be true. “I hope you are joking with me right now.” he said because getting the whole chain had to take something then just small negotiations.

                “Think big, be big my friend.” said Gabriel turning more serious. “He was a Green Beret Colonel…” he started and right then Castiel knew they were screwed. “So I made up a story of you wounded in Nam and he wants to do business.” It definitely was too good to be true as Castiel ran a hand over his face trying to come to terms with what his brother had done. Mr. Buyrite was big enough that he could easily ruin their business with a sentence and Gabriel had just lied to him to get them to do business together! “Now he’s coming around this morning to check out the operations.”

                “This morning?!” exclaimed Castiel realizing that it was now even worse than he had first thought. “Great Gabriel there is only chaos down here. Augie brings me slimy cherries…” he said standing up.

                “So what?”

                “From upstate!”

                “So what?”

                “Jerry’s getting married tomorrow night!”

                “So what?”

                “Did you realize that?!”

                “I was out drinking all last night.” explained Gabriel standing up as well and going over to his brother.

                “I haven’t even gotten my tuxedo yet!” stated Castiel at the same time as Gabriel explaining how he was doing a good job. The two continued to argue loudly back and forth about their own problems or how one of them was doing bigger and better things until Gabriel began leading Castiel to sit down in his chair again.

                “Come on, just sit down and relax for a minute.” said Gabriel coddling him like he would have done when they were children but his brother did need to calm down. It wasn’t the end of the world with just a few small problems. “Look at your desk! What is this?!”

                “I can handle it, I can handle it just don’t worry.” he assured Gabriel beginning to calm down. “Don’t touch the desk.”

                “It’s a pig sty.”

                “Leave it alone.”

                “Do what I do! Throw it all…”

                “I have a system on the desk!” snapped Castiel getting Gabriel to back off before he made him lose important documents that he knew where they were as long as no one touched his desk.

                Gabriel was glad he heard the buzz of a call so he could get Castiel’s attention off of him and pointed at the phone. “Phone for you.” he said as he walked over to the other phone in the office and sat down in the chairs next to it.

                “What?” he asked looking over and seeing that there was a call waiting for him. “Yes?” he greeted after picking up the phone in a hurry.

                “There is an Anna on the other line.” explained Mrs. Stimler.

                Castiel instantly felt bad and rubbed his forehead lightly as he leaned forward in his desk. “Yes, I’ll take it.” The call was instantly switched over and Castiel began apologizing. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I meant to call you back, I forgot.” As the call continued Gabriel was waiting for him to be distracted enough. “What’s the matter? Your voice sounds funny…”

                “I’m moving out Castiel.” answered Anna only needing to pack up a few more things.

                “What? Now?!” he asked standing up from his seat.

                “Yes.”

                “You’re moving out of the apartment now, as we’re talking?” Gabriel figured he was distracted enough now and reached over to take the phone off the handle quickly so that it wouldn’t make a sound and brought it to his ear.

                Anna sighed hating to do this, she really did but they never talked about it like he had promised. “We are having problems and we were going to talk about it.”

                “Yeah we were, we were going to talk about.” agreed Castiel quickly trying to think of a way to keep her from moving out.  “But…Anna this is-this is a little impulsive don’t you think?”

                “No, it’s not impulsive at all Castiel.”

                “Well if we were married you wouldn’t move out like this.”

                “She might do that sure.” nodded Gabriel not able to keep his comments to himself.

                Castiel instantly looked over glaring at his older brother. “Would you get off?!”

                Gabriel looked surprised and sat up a little straighter. “Was that you?”

                “Get off the phone!” he demanded only getting angry like this when he was really stressed or tired of Gabriel and his stupid little pranks.

                “What? I’m so sorry!” apologized Gabriel hanging up the phone and looking like he was honestly sorry about eavesdropping on the conversation.

                Castiel’s attention was quickly averted back to the phone, “No no no no, not you Anna, not you.”

                “I didn’t know you were on the phone.” he said as he left the room.

                “Look, Castiel. I know you are probably busy and having problems at work. I know you wouldn’t forget unless you were busy but do you love me?” she asked.

                “What do you mean do I love you?”

                “It’s a pretty simple question Castiel, do, you, love me?”

                Castiel had never said those words to her during their relationship because it didn’t feel right. Even now he was feeling something pulling him back, cutting off his vocal cords. He really did like Anna and didn’t want her to leave so it couldn’t be that hard. “Well, uh…” he started hesitating even further. “Well we meet and, and I and…” he trailed off again.

                “Castiel.” she said sternly.

                “Well you moved in didn’t you?!” he asked turning the questions back toward her.

                “Of course I moved in Castiel. I figured that if I moved in things would get better, we’d see each other more, and move on in our relationship but we haven’t-“

                “No, it’s just a very complicated thing…” he interrupted before thinking of the better way to approach this. “Hey, do you love me?”

                “No.”

                “Well, there you go.” he said and this time there was no response other than the dial tone as Anna hang up. Castiel at first didn’t move or pull the phone away since he just couldn’t believe that she was really leaving. The relationship did seem a little forced every now and then but to actually hear her leaving was a big thing. He finally pulled the phone away from his head and looked down at the desk. “There she went…” he mumbled under his breath. It still took a few extra seconds before Castiel hung up the phone and slowly looked around the office trying to get himself back under control. So many things had happened in just one morning that he was almost afraid to begin the rest of the week.

                Castiel wasn’t sure if he should be happy to be home or not. The one good thing that probably happened today was that he got Mr. Buyrite to reschedule his visit to the warehouse the day after tomorrow so he didn’t have to worry too much about it until after Jerry’s wedding. After he had unlocked his door, opened it up and looked around the room, he realized he didn’t want to be home. The atmosphere itself was already different without Anna waiting there for him and the places around the apartment where her things had resided were very empty and very noticeable. Castiel sighed as he soon go to his room and lied down on the bed. It was going to be difficult to get used to living by himself again and maybe, if he was lucky, the reason why the apartment felt so lifeless was because it just happened today. He might wake up and things could be better and already getting back to normal. At least that was what he was hoping as he got ready for bed, made sure his tuxedo was hanging to get out any wrinkles, and fell asleep.

***

                _It was a beautiful day as Castiel sat down on the beach looking over the ocean. He really did wish he could swim but for some reason he never felt comfortable in the water. Over his life he had tried several times and yet each time he failed. The water always looked so calming as it slowly washed up onto shore and most people were afraid of how deep and dark the ocean could get. He wasn’t afraid of it but curious. He tilted his head back to take in the warmth of the sun and sighed happily. The sounds of the small waves crashing against the shore were disrupted by a splashing out in the ocean. It sounded too big to be a fish and he quickly looked out over the water again._

_The water didn’t look like it had been disturbed at all and he slowly scanned the horizon to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. He could have just been imagining it but just as he was about to look away there was another splash. Castiel caught the shape and it was a fish fin but it was bigger than any fish he had seen so close to shore. He stood up and walked to the edge of the water trying to see if he could catch a better glimpse of the fish. The water was so still again making him believe that it had just disappeared and maybe he was seeing and hearing things. The sun could play funny tricks with the mind but it just seemed too real. He was about to give up again when a head popped out of the water. Castiel was confused because he was looking for the sign of the fish and no one had entered the water since he had been there. It was the eyes that tripped him up since he could swear he had seen eyes like that before. They were really green and slowly studying him. What was so familiar about this?_

***

                The next day, church bells were ringing and the sun was shining. Castiel knew that Anna breaking up with him wouldn’t end the world but for some reason it still bothered him. The two of them had been together and even lived together for a long time without any problems until she suddenly wanted to know if they loved each other. It wasn’t asking for much however if the relationship was truly going to last, by this point at least one of them had to be in love and not either one of them could say the words. All of the guests were still waiting outside the church to be seated, old friends meeting up after a while of not seeing each other and everyone enjoying the beautiful day.

                Gabriel had arrived and instead of looking for his brother, he was walking through the crowd, looking around to see all who had shown up so far. He wasn’t on the lookout for anyone in particular but instead he was looking for the perfect group that was too distracted to pay attention to what he was doing. It didn’t really take him that long as he reached into his pocket and stopped to look at a group of women getting their picture taken. What made it even better was that the woman who was taking the photo ended up having camera troubles. The other three came over to help her out and Gabriel pulled his hand out, holding it in front of him for a second before he dropped a lot of change on the ground. He bent down to retrieve the coins he had dropped and at the same time, look up the dresses.

                Luckily, Castiel wasn’t too far behind Gabriel and the moment he saw him heading for the ground he walked quickly over to him pulling Gabriel up. “Get up.” he demanded catching the attention of a couple of the ladies.

                “What?!” exclaimed Gabriel trying to keep his voice somewhat soft. “What?!” he asked again sounding slightly irritated since his brother had ruined probably the only time he was going to be able to do that while at the wedding.

                “It was embarrassing when you were ten and I’m not going to let you do it while at my best friend’s wedding.” he explained to him as he continued to escort Gabriel far away from the group of women.

                “Look if something works for me then I stick with it!” he said before Castiel stopped walking to look over the crowd that had come to see Jerry get married. Gabriel wasn’t really done talking though as he bit his lip a little. Sure he wouldn’t do this for their dad or for even Michael but he would do this to help Castiel any day. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.” he started. “I’ve gotta get more involved with the business and I intend too.” he explained seeing that Castiel wasn’t really taking any interest in it. Probably because he had said this before and never followed through with it but this time he really, really meant it. “I mean it this time, I’m going too!” Castiel looked at his brother knowing that he meant well but Gabriel was never really the type who could get into a business and run it. It’s not that he doesn’t trust him it’s just the way Gabriel was. He was better at other things like cooking and being creative, not stuck behind a desk. “I know the business! I was there at the beginning with dad, remember?” he asked him grasping at any small detail for Castiel to believe him that he could handle it. “I just, I want to know if we just, just sell fruits and vegetables or just fruit…?” he asked a pitch softer than his other few sentences since this was the question that could make or break Castiel trusting him with some of the business.

                Castiel really did feel bad that he wasn’t paying much attention to what Gabriel was saying but the whole Anna business was still stuck in his mind. It wouldn’t leave and going home was a constant reminder. If they hadn’t lived together for some time it might have been easier to just have her up and leave his life. “You know, by the time I got home she was gone.” he stated.

                “Anna really left then?”

                “Yeah…” he sighed as they began walking again. “You know why she left me Gabriel?” he asked giving it a few seconds. “Because I didn’t love her.”

                “That bitch.”

                Not too long after their conversation they were finally called up to do their job. They stood outside of the main doors welcoming people in and explaining that certain seats were taken. “Anywhere but the first three rows.” stated Castiel as a family walked by. “Anywhere but the first three rows.” he repeated to a group of women walking into the church.

                Gabriel knew one of them and smiled widely leaning toward her with his arms slightly outstretched. “Hey!”

                Instead of paying attention to Gabriel though she turned to face Castiel. “Hey Castiel, where’s Anna?”

                “Oh, oh uh, uh she’s a, she’s sick and she can’t make it.” he answered having a little bit of trouble since he didn’t expect anyone to notice that Anna was gone.

                “That’s too bad, I’m so sorry.” she apologized looking down at the news that Anna wouldn’t be here before she turned to go find a seat with her girlfriends.

                “Hey!” tried Gabriel again and this time she glanced back at him but quickly looked away to get to her seat.

                “Why didn’t I love her? Can you answer me that Gabriel? Why didn’t I love her?” he asked stepping close to Gabriel so that if someone did enter the church they wouldn’t hear their conversation word for word. “She had everything, she was bright, she was sensitive, and she was beautiful!”

                A couple interrupted Castiel’s train of thought, “Hey Castiel!”

                “Hi, hi.” he smiled at him and shook his head while his wife shook Gabriel’s hand.

                “Where is Anna?”

                Castiel nearly hesitated again but then he exclaimed, “Flu!” He was glad he didn’t forget the other excuse they had for the missing extra person. “Flu, she’s very sick and couldn’t come today.” he explained as they shook hands.

                “Will you give her my love for you?” he asked as he wrapped an arm around his wife and walked off.

                “I can’t even give her my love Gabriel.” he stated before he began pointing at his chest. “I’m telling you something, something doesn’t work right in here.”

                “There are worse organs not to be working.” pointed out Gabriel as Castiel stepped a few feet away so he could look over the crowd of people that still haven’t gotten inside just yet.

                “Hi guys!” exclaimed another guest happily as he walked up to the two of them. “Castiel, where is that pretty lady of yours?” he asked.

                “She’s not coming okay?” he said his voice and demeanor quickly changing to annoyed. “Do you want your money back?!” The man just nodded and quickly escaped into the church passing a Gabriel that gave him a small smile. “Well, maybe it’s all for the best huh?” he asked trying to really deal with his first real break up as much as he could.

                Another guy walked up and was making a straight shot for going inside but he also wanted to greet Castiel so as he passed he lifted up a hand with a smile. “Hey Castiel!”

                “She left me!” yelled Castiel. “She moved out and my life is in shambles okay?! That’s the news! You want the weather?!” The other male looked confused and a little frightened before he finally turned to get away from Castiel. “Anywhere but the first three rows!” he ordered.

                Gabriel walked close to his brother and rested a hand on his shoulder. “You should really lighten up on that guy, it’s the bride’s brother.” he explained as the church inside began to become a little louder from all the whispering.

***

                After the wedding went off without any problems and Castiel staying calm for the rest of the event, he thought it would be a nice treat to take his brother out drinking. Castiel hardly ever drank and Gabriel was courteous enough to go for a quiet bar to keep his brother from embarrassing himself to a minimum. “Now, you see Cassie, this is what you get for not at least having a little nip of alcohol here and there. It’s really not that bad to drink a little each week and maybe a couple times during the week because then when you do go drinking, you can last a little longer.” he explained picking up a new glass of alcohol the bartender gave him to take a drink. Gabriel was mostly teasing him since he was drinking a lot slower while Castiel just kind of drowned himself quickly into the booze world. “You really should have taken it a little slower.” he said as he as leaned against the bar.

                Castiel was lying on the bar with his face in a small bowl of pretzels. “No…” he groaned not making any effort to move from where he was at.

                “Hey barkeep, can we get some more alcohol over here!” he called and it only caused more protests from Castiel.

                “No, no, Gabriel!” sighed Castiel lifting his head slowly from the pretzels. “I don’t want to get drunk!”

                “You are drunk!” he assured him patting his shoulder lightly. “A sober person would have reached for the pretzels.”

                The bartender came back with two more glasses and looked at Castiel before at Gabriel. “Is he going to be there long?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Ah! Gabriel! I’m on the bar!” he exclaimed wiping at his face to get the pretzels that were stuck to it off.

                “You’re on the bar.” repeated Gabriel watching his brother slowly move to the edge. “Let’s get you off the bar.” he said as Castiel began to look like he was going to do a nose dive off the bar trying to push at a stool. “Ooooh, this stool is in your way. Let me move that for you.” Too bad the stool was about the only leverage Castiel had and the moment it was out of the way, his body crashed down to the floor. “Uh oh, you fell.” Gabriel got the chair out of the way and looked back just in time for Castiel to try standing and hitting his head on the lip of the bar. “Ow, that hurt…you’re not having a good day are you?” he asked helping Castiel back up on his feet and then let him lean against the bar.

                “Wasn’t that a beautiful wedding ceremony?”

                “Yes it was.”

                “It was…it really, really was.” mumbled Castiel under his breath while Gabriel’s attention zoned in on two beautiful ladies walking by. Castiel continued to talk about the wedding while Gabriel went running off to flirt with the two girls. He knew what Castiel needed to perk up his day and he was going to go work on it right now.

                Gabriel was making the girls laugh before they even got to their table. He did have a lot of charm and used it to his advantage. “Gabriel Novak here.” he introduced himself.

                Castiel was still at the bar and currently under no supervision as he looked over at a woman and man talking. “Where did you get these?” he asked smiling at her and flirting.

                The woman didn’t mind him flirting and was reciprocating. “My grandmother gave these to me.”

                “She did?” he asked earning a small nod.

                At the same time Castiel was moving toward them using the bar to make sure he wouldn’t fall again. “Hey.” he smiled at the two catching both their attentions but neither of them looked pleased to see him and their greetings were barely heard. “You, you guys are in love aren’t you?” he asked pointing at them with the flower he had in his suit for the wedding.

                “We just met.” answered the man and the woman looked over at him with a smile because it was kind of funny how drunk Castiel was.

                Castiel laughed and nodded his head. “Now, I know these things, I can tell.” he began to ramble but the woman really hoped that he would lose interest soon since she didn’t really want to deal with a drunk. “You two guys, you two are in love.” he smiled. “That’s…I think it’s beautiful.”

                The man was definitely tired of listening to a drunk and slowly nodded. “Thanks.” he said slowly before looking at the woman again and talking in a softer voice. “Uh, listen, I don’t live too far from here. We could go to my place for a quiet drink. I can take us to my-“ His offer of going home with him was cut short when Castiel spoke up again.

                “Do I expect too much out of life?!” exclaimed Castiel moving his arm and accidentally nudged the woman’s arm. It would have been fine if she wasn’t taking a drink at the time and spilled the drink down the front of her dress.

                “My dress! I can’t believe this!” she sighed pulling away to stand up and even if it was funny how drunk Castiel was, she was done with him.

                Castiel grabbed a napkin right away and reached over to help dry her off patting her chest a few times. “I’m sorry.” he apologized and the woman instantly pushed at his hand.

                “What do you think you’re doing?!” exclaimed the man taking the napkins to help dry her off instead.

                “What are you doing?” asked Castiel with a little attitude.

                “The both of you quit it!” she snapped pushing at the man’s hands and walking away from the bar. “You’re both crazy.” The man wasn’t going to give up so easily and quickly followed after her.

                Castiel decided to talk to the next person in sight which was the bartender since he walked over to clean up the mess on the bar. “I don’t ask for much, I don’t.” he assured him. “I don’t ask to be famous, I don’t ask to be rich, and I don’t ask to play center field for the New York Yankees or anything I just want to meet someone. I want to meet someone and I want to fall in love and I want to get married and possibly have kids.” he stated turning to look at the couple who came to sit at the bar next to him. The both of them looked a little wary of the choice as he faced forward again not yet done rambling. “But I am kidding myself this is never going to happen. I’m going to grow old and I’m gonna grow lonely and I’m going to die…and be surrounded by a lot of rotten fruit.” he confessed to the empty space in front of him and by doing so, it actually sobered him up a little.

                Gabriel was getting farther with the two women he had gone off to talk too and laughed at something one of them had said in his ear. “No kidding?” he asked with a wide smile.

                Castiel thought it was time for him to go wiping at his face a little. “Gabriel.”

              Gabriel looked up still smiling, “Cassie! Cassie! I want you to meet some friends of mine! This is Tawni and this is Jill.”

                “I’m Tawni, I’m Tawni.” corrected the blonde and Gabriel let it slide quickly fixing his mistake.

                “This is Tawni, Tawni Tiger and this is Jill, a four letter word and this is my brother Castiel.” smiled widely while Jill pointed to the seat next to her.

                “Hi.” he said feeling a little nervous now especially since his brother was making the sign that he was probably going to get laid tonight when he had something he needed to do. It involved his dream last night which he hadn’t had in a while and just going to cape cod would be nice getaway since he always felt comfortable there. “Gabriel, can I talk to you for a second?”

                “Of course you can.” he answered telling the two ladies to give him a minute before he got up. “Excuse me.” he said to the two ladies who were okay with him leaving for a few minutes. It was obvious that Gabriel had charmed them which Castiel didn’t have any reason to believe he wouldn’t. His brother was always better at getting the ladies or men. “I’ll be right back.” he assured them and as he was walking away he looked at Jill. “I’ve got some whispering for you.” he winked. Gabriel was smiling widely as he walked over to Castiel. “Pack your bags tonight man, we’re going to Rio. These girls have a time sharing condominium and we’re going to spend some time with them.” he explained.

                “No.” said Castiel shaking his head. “No Gabriel I, I’m going to Cape Cod.” Right after Castiel had declared that he began walking out of the bar.

                Gabriel was caught off guard but he quickly recovered going after Castiel and grabbing his arm. “What are you talking about?! Cape Cod?! Why would you go to Cape Cod?!”

                Castiel wasn’t looking straight into his eyes but it didn’t really matter. “I don’t, I don’t know. I like Cape Cod Gabriel…I feel better up there and I had that dream again.” he admitted.

                “You mean the dream with the mermaid?” he asked.

                “Don’t say it like that…”

                “Like what? Like you’re chasing something that isn’t real? Why would you even want to be with a mermaid?”

                “Gabriel stop, just stop.” sighed Castiel needing some time to think and since Cape Cod always made him feel a little better, dream or not he thought that he could think there instead of at his home where there was no one.

                “Then let me drive you.” he offered and Castiel shook his head. “Come on, let me drive you.”

                “No, I’m okay, I promise I’m okay.”

                Gabriel really didn’t want him to drive so he wasn’t going to let him go that easily. “Let me drive you Castiel.”

                “I’ll get a cab.” he stated knowing that he wasn’t well enough to drive, he wasn’t that stupid but his brother had found some girls so he didn’t want to pressure him too much about having to take care of him.

                “You got enough money?” he asked seeing that his brother really didn’t want him to worry. His brother had to be the most stubborn person on Earth when it came to getting help.

                “Yes, I do.” he assured him and Gabriel nodded at him with a small smile. “Thanks.” Castiel patted him on the shoulder and began leaving the bar.

                Gabriel couldn’t help but ask, “Can I have some?”

                Castiel didn’t answer him as he got outside taking off his jacket. It was warm in the bar so he was trying to cool down and luck was on his side. There was a cab already parked not too far from the bar entrance and he looked around as he walked over to it. He knocked on the hood and then the window to make sure the cabbie knew he was going to need a ride as he got into the back seat.

                “Where too?” asked the cabbie as he pulled away from the curb.

                “Cape Cod, Massachusetts.”

               The cab came to screeching halt throwing Castiel up against the glass that separated the passengers from the driver. “You break that you pay for it.”

                Castiel wasn’t impressed by that statement at all as he slowly got himself back into the seat. “Oh, well I’m sorry. I really usually enjoy smashing the glass with my face.” he retorted.

                “Okay Cape Cod, that’s about three hundred miles, do you have enough cash?” he asked nodding his head slowly.

               “What is this?” he asked as he brought out the cash he had in his pocket. This time instead of being thrown forward, he was thrown backward from how quickly the cabbie stepped on the gas to get going.


	3. Only a Dream?

                Castiel didn’t get to Cape Cod until early morning and the cab driver actually had to wake him up. “Hey, come on, you have to get out now.” he said shaking him until Castiel finally snapped out of his dream.

                “A-are we here?” he asked tiredly moving to sit up.

                “Of course we are now where is my money so I can head back?”

               Castiel nodded at that and reached for his money again. The cabbie told him the price and he handed it over to him. “Thank you, very much for taking me here.” he said as he got out.

                “No problem.” he assured him before getting into the cab and left after Castiel got out.

                Only a few seconds after the cab had left did Castiel realize he was on the wrong side of the beach. He sighed a little before heading onto the beach and walking along it to see if he could find someone who would take him over to the other side.

***

                After the sun had risen a little more into the sky, Castiel could finally see people in the distance and began moving a little faster so he could get to them. It looked like they were going out on the water which was a benefit to him because they could possibly hitch a ride. Two of the three men were busy unloading big boxes from the truck while the third was yelling at them. The two that were unloading were wearing overalls, one with a jacket and the other with gloves. It could be seen like they were sharing clothes although the curly haired one looked taller and bigger. The other one had really curly hair, glasses, and dressed with a sweater vest. “Be careful with that.” he warned. The box fell onto its side and then flipped upside down causing the third to snap. “Be careful with that!” he repeated loudly. “What do you think you’re loading here?! This is scientifical equipment!” The man looked down at the box and ran around to the other side. “Hold up, hold up, hold up. This, you see that?” he asked both of them. “This _end_ up, you know what that means?” He waited for either one of them to answer but only after a few seconds of silence he couldn’t wait anymore. “That means this end up. Why don’t you try holding that end up!”

                The other two began working getting the other end up so that he would stop yelling at them but they ended up having it fall on its side. That got the other even more furious and he pushed them out of the way. “Get out of the way, I’ll do it myself!” he snapped but only after one second of trying to lift it he changed his mind. “Alright, help me, help me!” he demanded.

                Castiel finally got close to enough see what was going on and he didn’t really know what to think. He could tell that they were doing something big but things weren’t going that well. “Excuse me!” he yelled to gain their attention. The leader looked over at him seeing that he was disheveled, tie was askew, and his hair looked a little wet. He knew it had sprinkled earlier so he must have been walking for a long time along the beach. “Morning.” he smiled really hoping that they would help him out. The two who were doing all of the work greeted him back which made Castiel a little uneasy. “I was dropped off on the wrong side of the beach and I was hoping that uh, if you could take me over to the island?” he asked.

                Dead silence followed after the question as the three just stood there watching him. Castiel had a feeling that by how long it was taking them to answer that he wasn’t going to get a ride. “Well, uh you see, we’re not going, we’re taking the boat but we’re not going out there!”

                “Have you seen anyone else along this beach?” asked Castiel really needing some help since this guy had a thing against him.

                “No, just me and the moron twins.”

                The two had gotten back to work and were carrying another box toward the boat. The smaller one shook his head. “We’re not twins.” The other one was just smiling at him with his mouth open like a dog.

               Castiel had a lot of curiosity and since the boxes were so well boarded up he would like to know what he was doing. “So…what is all this stuff?” he asked with a smile trying to lighten the mood.

                It didn’t work as the one wearing glasses got upset. “I knew it!” he yelled. Castiel’s eyes widened slightly as the man came closer and he even backed up a few steps. “Who sent you?! Dr. Ross from Chicago?”

                “Wh-who’s Dr. Ross from Chicago?” he asked trying to be careful because anything he said could make it worse.

                “Oh, who is Dr. Ross? You’re good, you’re very good.” he said studying Castiel as he continued to look frightened and like he was about to run. “I bet you’re just some random beach goer who happens to wear a tuxedo!” Castiel looked down at his outfit furrowing his eyebrows. He probably should have gone home to change first but he just wanted to go to Cape Cod and this was making the trip not worth it, he didn’t even know what to say. “How dare you try to horn in on someone else’s research!”

                “Look, I’m just a guy trying to-“ he started but was quickly interrupted.

                “Walter Kornbluth is not a man to be taken advantage of so you just stay out of my way sonny.” he glared and pointed a finger at him to help get the point across. They continued to stare for a little longer as he backed up before he turned around. “Alright let’s get these things, move them!” he ordered.

                Castiel was left surprised and a little shaken from everything that had happened. He didn’t move his head while his eyes followed the three continuing to move the boxes to the boat. He just couldn’t move at all but when he was about too the man that spoke up earlier came over to him. “There’s a guy down the beach that runs people out to the island.”

                “What’s the name?” he asked looking back behind him before back at the man.

                “The guy or the island?”

                Castiel nodded slowly, “I’ll find him.”

***

                Castiel had managed to find the man who gave passage to people to the island except he didn’t really like the boat that he used to do so. It was just big enough for two people and it was going to take at least an hour to get to the island. He looked around at the water feeling uneasy about being in such a small boat. “What’s the matter? You look a little nervous.” asked the man Castiel found who was in a hat, stout, and in the basic fisher garb.

                “Yeah well, the truth of the matter is Fat Jack that I, I don’t know how to swim.” he admitted hoping that after he said this that he would give him a little more of a break.

                “Can’t swim?” he asked.

                “No sir.”

                “Then you wouldn’t want me doing…this.” he said placing his hands on the sides of the boat and rocking it back and forth.

                “Stop!” he called out his eyes widening and reaching for the sides himself. “Stop it! There’s water coming into the boat!” Castiel was reminded of Gabriel because he would do this to him too if he had the chance.

                “Nah, I’m just kidding.” he assured him and stopped rocking the boat.

                “Don’t do that.” The engine began to sputter and Fat Jack looked back quickly before back at Castiel. He really didn’t try to worry him as he turned back to face the engine better. “What is that? What’s the matter?”

                “I guess when I rocked the boat I got a little water in the engine.” he explained picking up a hammer from the bottom of the boat. “I can fix it, I’m a mechanic.” Fat Jack was hitting the engine with a hammer which didn’t look like he was that much of a mechanic. It took a few more hits and a try to start it before Fat Jack turned back to look at Castiel.

                “Did you fix it yet?”

                “No uh…I’ll go back for the other boat.” he sighed.

                “What?!” he exclaimed definitely not liking the idea that he was going to be stuck out here all by himself. Fat Jack didn’t respond as he took off his hat and jumped into the water. The water splashed onto Castiel and ran a hand through his hair. “Where are you going Mr. Fat Jack?”

                Fat Jack swam onto his back to back paddle. “Back to the dock to get the little boat. It’s only a couple miles, I can swim it.” he explained.

                Castiel couldn’t help but look at the boat he was in right now and back at Fat Jack. “The little boat?!”

                Not too far from where Castiel was left in the boat and sometime after Fat Jack left, there was another boat called the “Victorious”. It didn’t look that new but it certainly had a paint job recently because all of the colors were vibran. On the boat was Kornbluth in a wet suit and the “moron twins” and Kornbluth was staring through binoculars seeing Castiel in a boat looking around with no one else inside. The other two were quiet as they watched him wondering why he was spying on the guy. Kornbluth just knew he was here to ruin his research and glared from where he was standing. “I knew it.” he said turning around to set it down. “I knew that guy was spying me!” He turned to look at the two and yelled, “I wanna go down!”

                Only one of them began helping him, the other walked to the front of the boat to watch Castiel. To him it didn’t look like he was doing anything other than sitting in a boat. “Hey Mr. Kornbeef!”

                Walter couldn’t believe he had gotten his name wrong and waited a few seconds in hopes he would change it but he never did. “Kornbluth.” he corrected him.

                “What are you looking for down there? Buried treasure?” he asked intrigued now that it looked like someone else was interested.

                “You know what I’m looking for?” he asked looking at both of them. “Come on boy, I’ll tell you.” he said motioning them closer and they did in fact lean in close to him. “NONE OF YOUR GOD DAMN BUSINESS THAT’S WHAT! NOW LOWER ME DOWN!” he demanded nearly making the two go deaf as he finished putting on his mask to go into the water.

                Walter soon could feel the air coming to his mask and jumped into the water. On the boat the “twins” were still a little angry about how he had been treating them and one of them smiled widely. “Let’s pee down his air hole.” The other really liked the idea and began to undo his pants.

                Back at the small boat, Castiel was getting tired of waiting and slowly stood up and walked over to the engine. He picked up the hammer and hoped that this would be really easy to fix and he could get going to the island. Castiel tested the first blow, hitting the top and waiting a few seconds before he began to repeatedly hit the top. He tossed the hammer back onto the floorboard of the boat glaring a little at the engine. He got closer setting his foot on the side of the boat and pulling the cord back to start the engine. The engine actually spurred to life and the propeller started spinner quickly causing the boat to lift its front end slowly out of the water because of all the weight being on its back end.

                Castiel was caught off guard and went flying into the water as the boat continued on. He quickly began moving his arms to keep his head afloat and looked around for someone to help him. He was kicking his legs and moving his arms frantically not wanting to drown. The boat actually swung back and went by Castiel giving him the opportunity to reach for it but missed the boat. Castiel continued to struggle with swimming and heard the boat coming back around again. He looked over noticing it was coming right for him. There was no way he could move in time and so he resigned himself. “Oh geez…” he said softly letting himself sink into the water and tried covering his head but was still too slow and the boat knocked him out.

                During the whole fiasco, there was someone watching Castiel. They had a different point of view than what he would expect but he still knew something was wrong. His body was slowly sinking in the water and that wasn’t a good thing at all. The person sensed something about this guy, something familiar. He swam over to the body and wrapped his arms around him before getting to the surface to take him to the island. While he was being saved, the person helping him didn’t notice his wallet falling to the ocean floor because to him, he had no idea what it was.

***

                Castiel really wasn’t sure how long he was out as he lied on the beach, his feet still getting hit by the waves coming ashore and groaned lightly. He slowly turned his head with his mouth against the sand and ended up spitting some of it back out. His left hand slowly moved to his head as it continued to throb with pain. “Ow.” he moaned closing his eyes tightly.

                The groans and declarations of pain caught the attention of someone off to the side that was using the flowers and shrubbery to hide. Dean, who was older than he was all those years ago was a lot taller, had more muscle, and it looked like he even got more freckles. He didn’t know why this guy was always in so much trouble but once he had him on shore and got a good look, this was definitely the kid he had seen jump in the water to greet him all those years back, just older. He was being cautious and keeping his distance for now to see what the other would do once he got his bearings.

                Castiel was slowly lifting his head further off the ground and holding his left hand to the side of his head. He looked back at the ocean seeing that he was on the island and then looked forward trying to see if he could spot the person who had helped him. Dean had slowly risen out of the flowers to see him better to make sure he was completely okay and it was obvious that he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Castiel’s eyes landed on Dean and he stopped moving trying to figure out if he was really seeing someone there. Dean was staring right back at him wondering if he would do the same thing like last time. Hold his hand out or would he do something else? Was he dooming himself by helping him like this? “Hello?” called out Castiel not seeing much of a reaction. “Do you have any idea how I got here?” Dean still didn’t respond and continued to stare at him moving to hide his body behind the flowers a little more again. “Did you save me?” he asked tilting his head and Dean did the same thing. Castiel slowly stood up and Dean followed his actions again, showing even more that he wasn’t just shirtless but completely naked. Castiel’s suit was covered in sand and part of his face but he didn’t really care right now. “Do, do you speak English?”

                That time there was a reaction and Dean just smiled a little. It was kind of funny how he continued to speak even though he wasn’t responding and he didn’t look like much of a soldier like him so he definitely had no reason to be afraid of him. His physic was small and he reminded him a lot of his brother Sam, someone who used their mind more than their body. The both of them continued to stare without any problems until Castiel took a step toward him and Dean jumped running back into the bushes. It still frightened him to be on land and actually find out that his tail disappeared once it had dried. No one in their colony knew that and his brother would love to hear that about them if he promised not to tell their dad. Instead of running away he ran down to the water again and stopped at the edge to look over at Castiel. He wasn’t afraid of being nude or even embarrassed in front of him since he didn’t know that it wasn’t moral to run around naked on land.

                Castiel wasn’t bothered with the other being naked but that was because of his eyes. Once he was closer the green eyes reminded him of his dream and they were even studying him like before. There was no way he had to be dreaming again, he had to be. He also felt a deeper connection with this person then just with his dream and it was making him hesitate at speaking again. Castiel only took a few more steps toward him afraid that he would scare him again and stood there waiting to see what would happen.

                Not once had Dean looked away from Castiel’s eyes until he looked down at his feet to see he had stopped and then focused back on his eyes. Dean felt that odd calmness again with this person and finished stepping closer to him. He reached out to grab Castiel’s wrist and hold it up so he could place his hand against his. Castiel didn’t flinch or try pulling away when he grabbed his wrist being just as relaxed around Dean as he was with him. When he did this before with him he felt that same spark and so did Castiel. Castiel still couldn’t place where this had happened before but he wanted to grab his hand and almost did. Dean couldn’t help but smile a little because that meant he did save the right person. He knew this two tailed wouldn’t hurt him but he didn’t have time to stay. He pulled away and ran into the water so he could jump in and swim away.

                “Hey! Come back!” yelled Castiel wanting to thank him properly and find out more about him. He went running into the water up to his knees. “Wait! Come back please, please just tell me who you are!” Out in the distance Dean was swimming and looked back at him shaking his head a little. The guy was really persistent. He couldn’t stay, he had to get back and make sure everyone knew his scouting went alright. “I gotta talk to you!” he exclaimed trying desperately to get him back on shore. “Can I call you?! What’s your number?! I don’t know how to swim! I don’t know how to swim, come back!” he shouted wishing he would just listen and continued to run across the shore in an attempt to follow him. Dean soon disappeared past some rocks by going into the water and Castiel ran a hand through his hair. “Why didn’t I learn how to swim?” he asked himself. He sighed in defeat after a few more seconds of staring out into the water and turned away from the sea. There was a loud splash, a large fish that just jumped out past where Dean had disappeared. It was loud enough for him to hear but when he looked back at the sea, the fish was already gone. That reminded him more of his dream and yet he didn’t wake up when they touched and he even pinched himself for good measure. He wasn’t dreaming, this all really happened or at least he was hoping it really did.

                Even farther out into the ocean, about where Castiel was hit in the head with the boat, Dean resurfaced. He was only above the water for a second before diving into the water again and this time it was obvious the sound of the splashing was from his tail, it had come back after a few minutes of being in the water. Dean was swimming under the water mostly checking the area where Castiel had almost drowned to make sure he didn’t lose anything. The last thing he wanted was for the two tailed to come back and possibly drown again. He was really accident prone and if he could make sure he had no reason to come back to the ocean, it would make things easier.  Then again Dean had no idea how he would give it back to him if he did drop anything but at least this way he could see what was on land.

                Lately his home was having problems with what the two tailed do to the ocean and they were sending out scouting parties every day to make sure that they weren’t getting too close to their home. For some reason today when Dean was stationed to check out the ocean, he was pulled back to this particular area. He really didn’t know where the pull came from but he was glad for it. Dean’s home was saying that humans were planning on finding them and hurting them but out of all the years they’ve been scouting, there has never been one human close enough to them. It could also be that his real impression of a human isn’t that bad. The guy that he saved today and met all those years ago didn’t have the same killer vibe his dad and everyone else back home explained they have.

                Dean swam to the bottom of the ocean floor and found a brown and rectangle object. He tilted his head as he picked it up and looked it over before seeing a picture of the same man he had just saved. At least he knew this was his and he just needed to find out where he was on land. He had a feeling his brother could help him out more on this subject and began swimming back to their colony.

                On his way home, he was swimming toward the area where Kornbluth was researching the ocean life on the sea floor. He didn’t know there was another two tailed in this direction but he really didn’t mind swimming along the ocean floor. It was always nice to swim next to other fish at times except he was a little distracted as he turned the corner. Walter was there and looked up at to see Dean. Time froze for a few seconds but Dean quickly began moving to turn back around and find a different way to his colony. Walter freaked out and dropped his camera trying to get it back. “Wait, wait!” he yelled through his mask hoping to get a picture but once Dean got turned around it took one powerful movement of his tail to take off. By the time Walter got his camera back up to take a photo, Dean was gone and out of sight. He cursed and looked back at the boat before swimming back to the surface.

***

                The two brothers had a little trouble being able to leave the colony since their dad was beginning to keep a closer eye on them. He didn’t want Sam becoming like their mother but Dean didn’t really care if his brother liked looking into the few human things that end up in their colony. He was curious just like his brother. Sam was leading the way out of the colony and after a while of swimming they came across a sunken ship. “Okay Dean, give me the thing.” he said holding his hand out and Dean was a little unsure about it but he soon handed it off.

                “How will this tell you where he is?” he asked as he handed over the brown object and Sam began looking through everything before noticing the card that had Castiel’s face on it. He had a feeling this is what would help them find him and he went over to the maps, though he didn’t know what they were called to look for the one that he had seen the same letters as on the card. Sam looked through a few of them before coming over with one and putting the card next to the letters that spelled ‘New York’ on the map.

                “This is how it tells you.” smiled Sam pointing to the similar letters. “I bet this is where he is at.”

                Dean nodded at that and grabbed the brown thing and card from him to put it all back together. “You are not coming with.”

                Sam instantly made a noise of protest, “Why not?!”

                “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

                “I can help you find it easier.”

                “You’re not coming with.”

                “Dad won’t let you.” pointed out Sam because their dad was currently paranoid but that was another reason why Dean didn’t want Sam coming with.

                “If you came with, he would realize what we were doing. At least with me I can give an excuse about seeing something and needing to look into it. That will give me enough time to find him and check out anything that does worry our colony.” he explained and he was just avoiding the subject of the guy he ran into twice. For all his brother knew, he only met him once. Sam really didn’t look all that pleased because he was the one that was more interested into the two tailed’s world. “I’m sorry Sam but I don’t want to risk you being up there.”

                Sam was still frustrated and his tail did a few quick flicks. “Fine but you have to make sure you get back and tell me everything.”

                “I will.” he promised before looking at the map again. “Do you know how I get there?”

***

                Dean headed back to the colony with Sam and already knew what he was going to be asking him. They knew their days by the look of the moon in a little over a week the moon would be big and roun. He was ready to propose to his dad that he would go out and scout until then. There was no reason why his father wouldn’t agree to what he had to say and it wasn’t like he was going to be gone for very long or be in that much trouble. If he just stuck around the one guy he had seen twice, had never hurt him, and didn’t get wet, everything would be fine.

***

                Castiel had lost track of what was supposed to happen at work today or he would have remembered about Mr. Buyrite. Luckily his brother was more than willing to help and was escorting Mr. Buyrite around their warehouse. It was early in the morning and things hadn’t really picked up yet so it was the perfect time for him to show up. His head was wrapped in a bandage and still trying to figure out what happened yesterday, if it was really real. He kind of hoped it was because his brother did complain about his life being boring and being saved by a man that was naked and didn’t speak a single word was definitely interesting. Castiel spotted his secretary and smiled a little. “Hi Mrs. Stimler.”

                Mrs. Stimler smiled widely and set down the folder revealing that she was wearing her bra outside her shirt. “Hey…what happened to your head?” she asked moving to walk beside him and looked concerned. “Lightning?”

                “Uh, no, no a boat hit me.” he explained looking down at her bra and wondered if he should say anything. Mrs. Stimler wasn’t looking down at her shirt even if that is where Castiel was obvious looking and so he decided to bring it up. “Mrs., Mrs. Stimler…” he started.

                “Yes?” she asked still smiling widely.

                Castiel’s voice got caught in his throat and he smiled shaking his head. “Nothing.”

               “It’s so nice to have you back.” she said even giving his arm a light squeeze before walking back to her desk. As Mrs. Stimler was walking away he felt himself trying to laugh but it wasn’t that bad so he didn’t have to worry that much.

***

                Dean had finally arrived at the place his brother pointed that Castiel was at and he had climbed onto the shore giving himself time for his tail to dry. He moved his legs slowly again before standing up and making his way up the hill. He just needed to find someone who could help him find Castiel. The brown thing was in his hand but the only thing that wasn’t going well for him was that he was completely naked again. He climbed over a railing and saw a group of people standing at the base of a really big statue. Dean looked up at the statue before focusing on the people again.

                The reason why there were a group of people is because they were close to the statue of Liberty and the tour guide was going through the same spiel he had gone over many times with different faces. His voice was monotone and he wasn’t smiling since he was tired of his job. “Come on, you got feet let’s move them.” he urged the first group to go inside of the statue. “Don’t touch my hat, don’t ever touch my hat. Come on, hup, hup, hup, hup.” he said and as soon as the other group had passed he began the same speech all over again. “Welcome to the Statue of Liberty! The statue was a gift from French citizens to symbolize hope for naked men everywhere.” The tour guide had actually spotted Dean from the corner of his eye and his eyes widened as he looked at him. “Botchie balls!”

                A woman was the first from the group to turn around and she screamed pointing over at him. Dean didn’t know why he was suddenly getting all the attention of the group. Not everyone ran over to him, it was mostly the women who weren’t scared of him because without his tail, he had a very nice body from all the swimming and training. He didn’t have a six pack but he was still slim, had a filled out body from the practice at fighting, and he was a little more than average. All the commotion of the women had caused attention especially since the tour guide got the cops that were watching the statue and they came over interrupting things.

                “What’s going on here?!” asked the cop loudly pushing his way through to the center and his eyes widened. “Oh no! We don’t do this here! We’re not California!” he stated and grabbed Dean’s arm to begin directing him away from the crowd that began booing. Dean was at a complete loss of everything going on but so far he was fitting in just fine since no one was trying to hurt him. He was probably getting off easy compared to anyone else because he didn’t know what they were saying and it wasn’t like he had tried hiding the fact he was naked, he walked right up to a group of people.

                After a little while of them trying to find a shirt from the souvenir shop that would actually cover him and then some pants. There was no underwear but at least this way he was okay to walk around in public again. While they were finding some clothes for him he had showed them the brown thing. The officer took the wallet and looked through it finding the driver license. “Do you speak any English?” he asked.

                Dean didn’t understand him like he did when Castiel was trying to talk to him so he just pointed at the card. “I don’t think he does.” answered the other cop.

                “Well maybe this person can give us an idea of who he is.”

***

                Things were going great with Mr. Buyrite and he was actually beginning their business transactions today. He had two men walking with him, all wearing suits as he smiled at Gabriel. “Is that enough for you or do you want some more?” he asked.

                Gabriel had his arms up and smiling right back at him in his own suit as well because he was taking this very seriously like he had promised Castiel with a clipboard in his hand. “No, no, no, that’s plenty, that’s all the business we can handle. Let’s talk terms.” he said motioning to the clipboard they could sign the contract.

                A door behind where Gabriel was standing opened revealing Jerry and Castiel. Jerry had a package in his hand looking worried. “What am I supposed to do with all this food?”

                “Look, we’ll worry about it in the morning.” he said spotting his brother and knew that he would have an answer as to what’s going on.

                The only bad thing about him spotting Gabriel was that Mr. Buyrite had spotted him as well. “Hey Novak! Your brother told me about that unfortunate experience in Vietnam.” he stated.

                Castiel and Jerry shared a quick look of confusion before he walked over to them. “What?” he asked.

                Gabriel couldn’t believe how quickly Castiel had forgotten about his little white lie and set his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “The incident in Vietnam, remember?” he asked his eyes a little wide hoping he would quickly remember before their cover was blown. Castiel wasn’t getting it and looked over at Mr. Buyrite.

                “The grenade going off in your helmet. Does it still bother you? You’re wearing a bandage.” he asked concerned because he knew how it went when you were sent to war, something bad happened, and then having to come back.

                Jerry had to interrupt the group because he answered the telephone and the call was for Castiel. “Castiel.” he called.

                “Yeah?” he asked glad for the distraction since he still didn’t know what was going on.

                “Phone.” he said holding the phone up.

                Castiel looked back at the group with a small smile. “Excuse me.” he said walking over to the phone. “Yeah?”

                “Castiel Novak?”

                “This is him.”

                The cop on the other end was glad they had found the guy. “Well, we have a man here who appeared naked at the statue of Liberty with your wallet and since we don’t know his name or anything we hoped you could come down and answer a few questions.”

                Realization was settling in with Castiel knowing exactly who it was that they had in custody at the moment. Well he didn’t know the name or where the person was from but just knowing that he had another chance to speak with him he had to go there. “Yeah, I’m on my way.” he said quickly hanging up the phone and running toward where he left his car.

                “Castiel?” asked Gabriel trying to get his attention but Castiel was set on leaving the warehouse. “Castiel where are you going? Cassie!” he called just as Castiel got the car started and sped out of the warehouse.

                Mr. Buyrite didn’t know what was going on either and looked at Gabriel, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. “What happened?”

                Gabriel thought on the fly and figured out a way to make sure that Mr. Buyrite had no suspicions of them lying about the Vietnam incident. “Well you see, he was on the phone in Nam when the grenade went off and ever since then, he…runs and gets in a car and drives away.” he explained having a little hesitation near the end. Mr. Buyrite nodded his head to show he understood. “I don’t know why but it happens. Let’s review this.” he said nodding and motioning back to the clipboard. Once he got rid of Mr. Buyrite he was going to call up Castiel and ask what was going on.

***

                Castiel was beginning to have rational thoughts as he drove to the police department because why would he go this far to help this person? Sure he saved his life but what was attracting him to the other male? There were many other questions that began circling his mind but he couldn’t focus enough to find an answer for any of them. All he knew was that the guy that saved his life was here and he could finally talk to him. He pulled up to park next to a line of cars, double parking but they wouldn’t really ticket his car since he wouldn’t be inside for very long and got out. He regained his composure now that he was finally here and just fast walked the rest of the way instead of running.

                If he wasn’t still in a rush he would have noticed the man in the corner but he went straight to the counter and started tapping the service bell several times trying to get a cop’s attention. No one wanted to answer him right away until he began calling out for someone to come help him. Finally a cop turned around and came over to talk to him. “Hey, take it easy.” said the cop. “What do you want?”

                “Novak, my name is Castiel Novak and you called me.”

                “Hey!” he called back at the other officers gaining their attention. “Which one of you guys called for a Castiel Novak?”

                “Oh, I did. That’s for him.” he answered pointing to the guy who was sitting next to the window looking outside.

                “Right over there.” he pointed with his pen and Castiel turned around spotting him. Now that he saw him again the same questions were there. Why did he rush like this? Be so rude to the cops? Asking for a ticket the whole way here? How much did he care for this stranger? Dean looked up at Castiel smiling a little at him. Hey he kind of liked the kid even if he continued to get himself in trouble. Castiel didn’t say anything right away as he stared at him still trying to answer those questions. He slowly walked over and Dean did as well. They really had a thing about staring at each other, “Hello again.” he said getting a wallet handed to him as a greeting. Dean had kept it safe for him and Castiel smiled at that, “Thank you.”

                The cops both raised eyebrows and the one behind the counter spoke up. “I take it you know this guy?”

                Something in Castiel told him that he knew Dean. “I do.”

                “Who is he?”

                That is when the lie caught up with Castiel and he looked back at Dean seeing him back up a bit again to give them space but was still staring at him. “I don’t know.”

                “Of course.” sighed the cop rolling his eyes and decided to just let them be as they stared at each other again. Castiel was more than glad that what happened wasn’t a dream and even though it was strange his dream had come true but he still needed to figure out the big fish in it.


	4. First Day

                Castiel felt obligated to take Dean home since he had done so much for him and he still didn’t know a thing about him. He really wanted to figure out more and specifically why he seemed so familiar. It was odd at how Dean acted because everything for him was new. He didn’t know how to do anything or he just looked around in wonder. Every now and then he would see him laugh a little even though there was nothing funny going on. That was just the trip back to his hotel room and he had a feeling it wouldn’t stop after they got there which just raised more questions.

                Dean was having the time of his life and knew if his brother was here, he would be too. He could just imagine his brother doing everything he saw humans doing. _Sam would have a blast here._ He knew he should probably look into humans and what they’re planning on doing with the ocean as of late but he just couldn’t focus on that right now. The big metal boxes were obviously no threat since they could only drive on the weird, black, flat surface which was a good thing because there were a lot of them. When the metal box they were in finally stopped he didn’t know what to do so he looked over to watch Castiel. Castiel easily got out of the car but Dean took a few seconds to figure out how to do it and finally got it open.

                Castiel was standing there with a look of concern when Dean got out of the car and all he did was smile at him. “You really can’t speak English can you?” he asked him and watched as Dean looked around again. He sighed and motioned for Dean to follow him across the street.

                “Hello Mr. Novak.” smiled the door greeter to his hotel and Castiel nodded.

                “Hello Timmy.”

                “Who is your guest?”

                Castiel glanced over at Dean and decided to tell a lie this time around. “A friend but he can’t speak English right now.” Timmy nodded as they both walked past and Castiel had Dean go through the revolving door first. They were separated by a window with a frame so he couldn’t stop Dean from continuing to follow the door back outside. He looked around confused and Castiel was right behind him motioning for him to follow again. Timmy had ended up watching the two of them with a raised eyebrow. “Can we get this door fixed?” asked Castiel trying to play it off and even though there wasn’t enough room he got into the same spot as Dean, ending right up against his back. Castiel was definitely blushing slightly by the time they got inside of the hotel while Dean took it in stride. Dean was really handsome and everyone with one look could agree to that statement.

                Dean was still looking at everything in wonder and he didn’t know what was going to happen now. He needed to learn about these things before he began to look stranger than he already was and walked over to the counter as Castiel went to the elevator to call one. He began ringing the service bell and Castiel quickly went over to pull him away. “You don’t ring that unless you need help.” he explained waving off the employee that came to answer the rings and got them inside of the elevator. “Why do you have the wonder like a child?” he asked him earning no response as Dean as looked at the buttons. He reached out to see what would happen but Castiel quickly caught his hand. _Why is he acting like he’s never seen any of this before?_

                At the top floor, Dean followed Castiel again into his room and slowly took in everything. It was going to be really difficult to give his brother a full report when he headed back to the colony. He was touching everything in the living room and a couple times Castiel had to keep him from breaking something. Dean soon made it down the hallway completely ignoring the doors since they were closed and he didn’t know how to open them ending up in Castiel’s bedroom. The bedroom had some hanging paintings and even a small aquarium built into the wall but it was the window that caught his attention. He could see the sun outside and it reminded him of when he looked up at the sky from in the ocean. Granted it wasn’t wavy or a blue tint but it reminded him of home. He walked up to the window and looked out of it quickly regretting it when he saw the ground so far below and fell back onto the floor.

                Castiel heard the bang and quickly walked into the room with the glass of water he had for Dean. “What’s wrong?” he asked setting the glass down. Dean’s eyes were wide and he was breathing slightly heavy as he continued to stare at the window. Castiel furrowed his eyebrows and walked toward the window. There was nothing different or scary in his opinion and looked back at Dean.

                Dean couldn’t say anything but there was no way he was looking out that window again. He slowly got up making sure his back was to it and noticed the television. He saw a reflection of himself and slowly walked over to it and touched the screen. Dean didn’t feel himself touch his face but before he could do anything else the screen came alive. His face quickly disappeared and in place, there were small two tails on the screen. He jumped back slightly and looked at Castiel who was holding a small object.

                “It’s a remote.” he explained and changed it to the guide channel so he could figure out what they could watch. Dean looked at the remote and then the television as it changed pictures and different two tails showed up in different scenarios. This was amazing to see how he could watch different two tails in a different location. Research to make sure the two tails weren’t going to mess with the ocean would be ten times easier now. Castiel soon found a movie he didn’t mind watching and grabbed the glass again. “Are you thirsty?” he asked holding the glass to Dean.

                Dean wasn’t paying attention to him as the movie presented two tails chasing after another one. He really didn’t understand what was going on and he heard Castiel speaking again. He turned around looking at the glass of water furrowing his eyebrows. Castiel moved the glass to Dean a little before grabbing his hand and then placing it in his. “Drink it.” Dean still didn’t know what to do but did remember the cops holding something close to this and putting it to their lips. He put it to his lips watching Castiel for confirmation he was doing it right. After a few seconds he opened his mouth and tipped the glass back successfully drinking from a cup for the first time. He blinked slowly before focusing on the glass. It was water but tasted nothing like the ocean. He kind of liked the taste of it since it was still water and drank the rest of the glass quickly.

                Castiel smiled at that glad he could connect with him somehow. “Do you want more?” he asked pointing to the glass. Dean gave him back the glass figuring he wanted it and Castiel got up to go get some more. His attention went back to the television completely fixated on what was happening. Castiel came back handing the water to Dean and he took it again drinking it all. He looked at the clock beside his bed and he didn’t realize he had been gone for so long. He was glad he could find the person who saved him but he had important work.

                “I need to go back to work, just stay here okay? After I’m back, we’ll get you some clothes and go to dinner, I owe you at least that much.” he said not getting a reaction from Dean but he assumed he wouldn’t mind and left the room making sure it was locked behind him. He knew it wouldn’t keep Dean out but he still wanted to be careful since he didn’t know what his deal was yet. Dean was too focused on the television to bother leaving because this was a fast way to learn about the two tails.

***

                Gabriel was worried about his brother because of how fast he had taken off so he was walking around the warehouse trying to help get things done. He was watching the workers who were to pick out the best produce as it went down a conveyer belt. He knew he was just bored and worried but he couldn’t help it and began frowning as he saw them pull out more onions. “What are you doing? Some of these onions are perfectly fine.” he said grabbing a couple from the basket and tossing it back on the belt before dumping the whole thing. The worker that was right next to him couldn’t say anything but was looking worried as the bad onions continued down the belt.

                Castiel was keeping his composure very well as he walked back into the warehouse and Gabriel spotted him slowly walking over to his brother. He smiled at his brother nervously and Gabriel could easily tell something was up. “Hello Gabriel.”

                “You are very happy compared to this morning.” he pointed out to him proving that Castiel couldn’t hide anything from him.

                “It’s just a better day.” he said looking at some of the fruit in the box next to him.

                “Well, dealing with our business I have the Buyrite contract if you want to take a look.” said Gabriel knowing for sure at how Castiel reacted to this if what happened was that big of a game changer.

                Castiel shrugged a little not looking back at him, “I believe you can handle it Gabriel, you know the business.”

                Gabriel smiled a little nodding his head, something was definitely up and he would just have to try asking a little later. “Ooh so I am in charge?”

                “Sure.” he nodded. “You told me to give you a chance and here is your chance Gabriel.”

                “But what about the lawyer’s meeting tonight at eight?” he asked just trying to see how much he trusted him or how okay he was now with him running the business.

                “Eight?! It’s really at eight tonight?” he asked shaking his head. “I can’t make it, I have a prior engagement.”

                Gabriel knew he had him now, “What prior engagement?”

                “It’s nothing to worry about.” he quickly defended.

                “Did you go and meet up with someone?” he asked.

                “No…” he lied seeing his brother stare at him closely. “Kind of.”

                Gabriel instantly set his hand on his shoulder ushering him toward his office. “Then we have to talk.” It didn’t take them that long to get to the office and he let his brother sit in his chair. “What was the call about?”

                Castiel wasn’t sure if he should tell him everything now or at least about how he is staying at his hotel. “You know that dream I had?” he asked earning a nod from Gabriel. “Well it came true. The green eyes that I saw in the dream were part of the man who saved my life from drowning when I was at Cape Cod and he was at the police station with my wallet.” he explained only telling him so much.

                “So…you left, have a prior engagement, and dreamt about a dreamy guy your whole life?”

                “It’s not like that.” Castiel said defensively.

                “Sure sounds like it.” smirked Gabriel. “Are you going to let me meet him?”

                “He doesn’t speak a lot of English and I’m going to find out a little more about him tonight as I treat to him dinner.”

                Gabriel couldn’t help but continue to smirk wider loving how his brother was trying to act like he was being a good Samaritan. “I think you have an ulterior motive.” Castiel shook his head at that because it wasn’t anything like that. “Come on Cas, you wouldn’t let me see Anna for a month and there’s no way I’m passing out on an opportunity like this. You obviously care for him and I’d like to thank him for saving my little brother.”

                Castiel fidgeted slightly able to see his reasoning with it but he just didn’t want Gabriel scaring him off so quickly. He loved his brother but he had a way of flirting, especially if it was someone he was seeing and he didn’t think Dean was ready to be put up against that. He wasn’t even sure if Dean did stay at the hotel or how long he would. “I don’t know, just not tonight okay?”

***

                Castiel was more than ready to go home when it was finally time and he looked around almost expecting him to be gone. Nothing moved and it made him assume that Dean must have left but the moment he shut the door there was hurried footsteps. “Castle, you need to come in here.” demanded Dean from the hallway and motioning to the bedroom. The commercial was on, the one about ocean animals being caged up and he needed to make sure there was no one from his colony there or from another one. Castiel paused when he heard Dean speaking and was slow to react. “Come on!” he urged grabbing his arm and pulling him. He followed him and looked at the television seeing the commercial for Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

                “It’s a commercial?” he asked not sure why he wanted to show him this.

                “I need to go there.” he demanded again sitting in front of the television and trying to touch the sea creatures when they appeared on the television.

                Castiel didn’t want to talk about the commercial right now he wanted to talk about the sudden use of the English language. “You can speak English?” he asked.

                “I’ve watched television all day long and that’s how I learned it.”

                “I think you really need to stop watching it then.” he said turning off the television.

                Dean frowned at that and looked up at Castiel. “I need to go to Maritime Aquarium.”

                “They’re closed right now. We will have to go another day.” he explained and Dean slowly nodded at that going to make sure it was tomorrow. Castiel realized that the way he said that he assumed that Dean would be staying here but he had to make sure it was okay with him first. “My name isn’t Castle.” he explained to him.

                “Then what is your name?” he asked trying to read it from a few things he found in the bedroom.

                “Castiel.”

                “Castel.”

                Castiel shook his head again, “No, Cas-ti-el.” he said slowly.

                Dean nodded but instead of saying the whole thing he went for something easier. “Cas, I’ll just call you Cas.”

               Castiel blinked a little at the shortened version which was probably his fault for saying it slowly but he didn’t mind it. “Where do you live?” he asked next wondering if it was close enough so they could go get clothes.

                Dean tensed up at the question and tried to quickly think of how to answer that. “Far away.”

                Castiel could see that the personal questions might not over well. “I think we should get you some clothes so you’re not wearing the Statue of Liberty shirt and pants that look like they barely fit you.”

                “Clothes are important.” said Dean looking down at his. He didn’t really like clothes all that much but they were needed and maybe he could find clothes that fit him better.

                “Yes, they are important and that’s why I thought we could get you some clothes before going to eat dinner. Have you eaten anything today while I’ve been gone?” he asked still going to act like Dean didn’t know much about but at least now that he could speak and make things ten times easier.

                Dean shook his head at that and repeated what he said earlier, “I’ve been watching television all day.”

                Castiel slowly nodded looking at the television. “Well we’ll definitely lessen your time of watching television.”

                “Do we get clothes at the mall?” he asked seeing a few things about people buying clothes there and there were also commercials about it as well.

                “Yeah we do so let’s go and get that done quickly so that we can eat dinner.”

***

                Buying clothes went a lot faster than Castiel would have guessed. Dean didn’t have much say in his clothes and most of the time just tried on what Castiel found, he got the correct size and that was it. It was nice that it went fast and since he caught on what Dean was doing, he found clothes he thought fit him. Dean ended up getting mostly simple shirts, over shirts, and a few jackets that he could wear over. For some reason he just had the idea that Dean looked better in two layers and it was very obvious as they waited for the table at the restaurant. Many of the women would look at Dean and him and stare for longer than most strangers would stare at someone. It was funny since Dean was looking around the restaurant more interested than the people waiting for tables so they were being ignored.

                Dean had seen a few restaurants on the television but seeing it in real life was interesting. He had a lot of questions but he needed to be careful as to how many he asked so Castiel didn’t get suspicious. “Why do we need to wait for a table?” he asked seeing a few open ones.

                “Some people have reserved the tables.” he answered as their names were called. He got up making sure Dean followed them as they were shown to their table. “Can you read English?”

                “Not that well seeing as I didn’t get your name right.”

                “You still do a really good job.” he assured him glad that he found out how to speak English so quickly. “You are very intelligent.”

                Dean shook his head right away at that, “I’m not near as intelligent as my brother.”

                Castiel was about to ask him what his brother’s name was before he realized that he hadn’t even asked him his name. “What’s your name?”

                Dean paused at answering that question and looked to the side wondering how he was supposed to do this. “You can’t say my name in my English.”

                “I’d like to give it a try.” he urged him. Dean still wasn’t sure about it but looked at him before he made loud screeching noises that might have been a whale? Either way it was loud, caught everyone’s attention in the restaurant and even broke a few glass objects nearby. He looked around slowly seeing how everyone was looking at them and Castiel’s eyes were a little wide. “I don’t think I could say that.” he agreed only after he regretted asking him to do that. The way he said that was really suspicious but at the moment he wanted things to get back to normal so everyone would stop staring at them, Dean didn’t look that comfortable. “I guess I’ll need a name that I can actually say.”

                “I don’t know what my name would be in English.” he admitted.

                Castiel wanted to think about it but their waiter came by. “Will he be doing that again?”

                “No, he won’t.”

                The waiter nodded looking at Dean again giving him a warning stare. “Are you guys ready to order?”

                “I think we’ll need more time for that.” answered Castiel kind of forgetting that they needed to pick something to eat instead of just talking to each other the whole time. The waiter left and Dean watched Castiel open his menu. “If you need help, I ‘m here.” he assured him as he glanced over at him slowly following Castiel’s movements.

                “I know.” he said as he focused on the menu in front of him trying to see if he could read the words and understand what each dish was. Dean couldn’t help but smell the familiar aroma of fish and lobster, which both sounded great. If he could find it in the menu then he would order it because not eating the whole day and now smelling fish was driving him crazy.

                Castiel had found what he wanted and when he looked over at Dean again he was still looking at the menu and about only halfway through. He didn’t want to rush him but he really didn’t see why he wouldn’t let him help. “Does something sound good?” he asked.

                Dean nodded at that but didn’t say anything right away and turned to the next page not yet finding the lobster or any kind of fish. It was difficult to translate things from the language he knew to English. He looked up at Castiel who was waiting patiently for him to tell him which one sounded good. “Lobster, I can’t find it but I can smell it.”

                “They do have it so you can order it.” he smiled a little at him and Dean was glad to hear that and quickly closed the menu so he could get his food. “We need to try thinking of a name for you that I can say.”

                “I don’t really want to be called by a second name.” he frowned because he liked his name. As he thought about it though, it would probably be a name that he would need for a week and then he would be back at his colony. “Well, maybe I could find a name.”

                Castiel was glad he agreed and when the waiter came by he quickly told him their orders and he went off again. “Okay, so now all we need to do is think of some of boy names and we can stop when you come across one you like.”

                “Is there a shorter way we could do this?” he asked.

                “Not that I can think of…”

                “Alright so how about you start saying names then.”

                Now Castiel could see the problem because he wasn’t that great at coming up with names especially since his parents cheated and named all their kids after angels. He was trying to think of some and soon came up with a few, only a few. “Samuel? Jeremy? Frederic?”

                Dean shook his head at all three of them because they just didn’t sound right. He needed a name that didn’t sound as sophisticated because he wasn’t as smart as his brother, he was a soldier. “Those all sound too smart or long.”

                “You’re really smart though. Look at how fast you learned to speak and be able to hear English.” he pointed out to him not wanting him to feel like he was stupid. Castiel didn’t like Dean thinking that at all because he definitely deserved more credit than he was giving himself so far. For some reason he just felt really protective of him even though he hardly knew him or anything about where he came from.

                “Maybe we could do this a little later? When you have something to help look up names?” he offered not wanting to talk about it anymore.

                Castiel sighed a little and folded to his wishes since he didn’t want him upset when they were supposed to be having a nice dinner. “What about your family? Can you tell me about them?” he asked him.

                Dean didn’t think he should but he also didn’t need to give away too much detail. “My brother is the brains of the family, taking after our mom.” he started. “He is interested into how other species live and interact with each other but it is really hard for him to study what he wants.”

                “Why is that?”

                “Our dad doesn’t want him to do it because that’s how our mother died. A bad accident happened and she never came back.” he explained going to keep it at that for learning about his family. “What family do you have?” he asked trying to get the attention off of him as they waited for their food.

                “I had four brothers but the oldest died a couple months back.” he answered. “The next oldest left the house the first chance he got and the third oldest is the only one he talks too and even that is very little. Our family kind of fell apart and hasn’t been fixed…”

                Dean could see that talking about his family wasn’t that great of an idea either. _So we both have family members that have died._ “I’m sorry that things haven’t gone very well.”

                “It’s just part of life and I’ve gotten used to them being gone.”

                Luckily further discussion about it was interrupted as the waiter came with their food. Castiel had ordered himself something simple because it had been awhile since he had a cheeseburger and fries. Dean loved the size of the lobster it was and picked it up to bite into it. He didn’t care for the shell or anything like that because in the sea he would eat it raw, shell and all. Castiel stared at him with wide eyes not able to begin eating his hamburger and even some of the people that could hear the crunching looked over at them. By this point of the night they probably thought that the two of them were crazy. Dean paused when he felt like he was being watched and looked up at Castiel before setting his lobster down even though half of it was already eaten. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

                Castiel didn’t know why but he suddenly wanted to laugh at what happened. He had never seen someone eat a lobster like that and Dean was really unique. “You are definitely from a different country.” he smiled a little at him and that smile set Dean at ease.

                “How do you guys usually eat it?” he asked.

                “You pull the shell away and only eat the meat.” he explained.

                Dean nodded at that and began to only eat the meat, avoiding the shell this time around.

***

                Dean and Castiel were walking home since the restaurant wasn’t too far from his hotel. “Okay, I think we should continue talking about your name again.” he said but Dean had gotten distracted by the walk light for pedestrians so they knew when it was safe to cross. At the moment it was blinking the word “WALK”.

                “This is different than the other lights and it only appears on these things.” he said out loud and Castiel nodded at that.

                “They tell the people who are walking around the city when to walk and when the other word ‘DON’T’ appears, you don’t cross the street.” he explained wanting to know more about where he came from. There had to be crosswalks, intersection lights, and other things like in New York City.

                Dean followed after him as he began walking across the street so they didn’t have to wait for another opportunity. “What is that?” he asked pointing at a small band playing a song. He had heard some of it when he was watching the television but it wasn’t explained.

                “Music?” asked Castiel furrowing his eyebrows. He definitely knew that Dean had to hear it before or the place he came from was really secluded.

                “I really like listening to it.” he smiled and since it was a blues type of song he wasn’t too interested into it. There was other music he had heard on the television that he liked a lot better but he didn’t know what it was called or he would ask if he could listen to more of it.

                “You really never heard music?”

                Dean shrugged a little and Castiel motioned for him to follow again not wanting them to creep out the band by staying too long, it was New York City. He was nowhere near as excited as his brother would be if he was there but he still couldn’t stop himself from darting into the street. The really big screen of the television was distracting even though all that was on it was an advertisement.

                “Hey!” called out Castiel running after him to get him out of the street but Dean already saw something else running back onto the sidewalk at least. There were a few drivers that had come to a screeching halt because of Dean and were out of their cars yelling at Castiel. “He’s out of town, cut him some slack.” he stated before following after Dean again.

                Dean was busy staring through a window as a man was making a pie crust. He was slowly working the dough and then he began tossing it in the air. “I’ve heard that these are really delicious and good for you.” he stated and Castiel shook his head at that.

                “It may taste really good but it is nowhere near healthy for you. You really did just watch television all day long didn’t you?” he asked and Dean nodded at that.

                “It was the only way that I could learn the language since you were gone all day.” he admitted and walked to the door opening it up.

                Castiel furrowed his eyebrows having a feeling he knew what he was going to say. “Do you want to try it?”

                “I’d like too.” he said as one of the employees came up to them.

                “What would you two like?” he asked the two of them.

                Castiel couldn’t believe he was hungry yet again but he really didn’t eat all that much today, which was his fault. “Just a slice of…” he said looking at the few pizzas they had made up. Dean pointed to the combination pizza, “That one.”

                The employee got a plate and then put a nice sized piece on it before handing it over. “$3.95” Castiel gave the plate to Dean as he handed over the. After he had gotten the change he turned around in time for Dean to take his first bite.

                Dean’s eyes widened slightly as he continued to eat it. “Wow, this is really good.” He then quickly finished the slice wondering what other food he had missed out while in the water. “What other food tastes as good as this?” he asked.

                “I don’t know how great it tastes for you but there is going to be more food you like.” he assured him and lead the way back outside. “When are you going back home?”

                “When the moon is full so six more days.” he said looking up at the sky for a few seconds.

                “That’s a pretty short time…”

                “I know and it’s even shorter since I’m also here for my brother as well, he wanted to come with.”

                “Why couldn’t he?”

                “Because of our dad, he’s protective of him.” he vaguely answered again knowing his dad only let him go because he was the soldier and wouldn’t get caught up with the humans. Dean however was getting caught up in the humans, everything was so different and new and this guy he had known forever. Sure he had only met him three times and after the third he was living with him but he trusted him like he had known him his whole life. There was just something about Castiel that soothed every fear he had of the humans. Dean just hoped that it didn’t bite him in the ass as it did with his mother.

                Castiel could tell they were going into territory that wasn’t supposed to be talked about and nodded. “Would you like to stay longer?” he asked looking over and saw that Dean suddenly produced a large coffee mug full of pencils. “Where did you get that?” Dean looked back for a few seconds looking at all of the pencils and pushing them around. Castiel glanced in the direction Dean had and his eyes widened quickly grabbing the mug from his hands and walked back to a blind man who was reaching out for the cup. “I’m sorry, here it is.” he said and once the man grabbed the mug he walked back to Dean’s side.

                “I would like to stay longer but I can’t.” he answered because if he did, his dad would think he was dead and he didn’t want him thinking that at all.

                “I understand.” assured Castiel even though he’d like it better if he stayed longer.

                Dean shrugged a little and continued to walk beside him. There were still some people walking by them but the amount of pedestrians was lessening as the night continued to wane. “I don’t know. I’ve been listening to names but there hasn’t been one that has stuck out yet.” he answered.

                Castiel nodded at that figuring it would be difficult to find a name especially since he could pick the one that sounded right. Before he could say anything a group of friends walked by and one of them looked over at her friend’s cellphone. “Did Dean finally get back to you?”

                “No, he still hasn’t.” she sighed but the rest of the conversation was lost to them as the group pulled away.

                Dean had stopped and looked back at the group, “Dean…that sounds right.”

                Castiel blinked a little and looked back at the group before at him. “Are you sure?”

                “Yeah, it sounds close to how mine is said.” he nodded and smiled. “Dean.”

                “It’s nice to meet you Dean.” he smiled back and held out his hand.

                Dean was a little confused and grabbed his hand with the same hand making the handshake awkward. “Nice to meet you too Cas.”

                Castiel tried not to laugh at the handshake before he pulled his hand away. “Do you have a place to stay? Because if you didn’t I wouldn’t mind sharing my place with you for the week?” he offered to him.

                Dean had no idea of where to look for a place to stay so hearing Castiel being even more kind to him was better. “I’d like that.” Castiel was happy that Dean wanted to stay with him and he couldn’t help but look up at the sky and see the moon already close to being full again. It would only be six more days before Dean would have to leave and he wasn’t too sure if he liked that idea or not.

***

                That night, Dean had crawled out from the pull out bed and slowly walked into the bathroom with a container of salt. He wanted the feeling of his tail again unable to believe how much he had missed it. Dean closed the door quietly and locked it before turning on the water. He made it warm before plugging it up and then pouring salt into the tub. Once he felt like it would be enough he stripped down and sat on the edge slowly putting his feet into the water. It felt great to feel water on his skin again and waited patiently. After a minute his legs molded together and his tail came back, his skin turned into scales, and the fins slowly sprouted from where his thighs were and the main ones where his feet used to be. He smiled at that and slowly lowered himself into the water up until his neck. His tail fins were curled but when he let his tail lie over the edge of the tub they unfurled. His body felt more at ease and it felt right again to him. Dean soon let himself slip into the water completely and closed his eyes with a small smile.

                It was so nice to be able to feel his tail again and didn’t think he would miss the feeling as much as he did. Dean couldn’t do this every night so he was just going to have to enjoy it while he could and to prove that he was right, Castiel had woken up to the soft noise of the tub running. He didn’t know why Dean would be taking a bath so late especially with how they first met, Dean was completely naked. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. “Dean?” he asked.

                Dean heard the knock and quickly surfaced making some splashes. He also quickly rolled out of the tub to try drying his tail off. “Yeah?” he answered trying to sound calm but he really didn’t need Castiel finding this out yet. He trusted him, a lot in fact and kind of liked him but this, this was too much right now.

                Castiel was worried when he heard the thump and tried opening the door but found it locked. “Dean, are you okay?” He was worried since he didn’t know how much Dean could do on his own and it didn’t help that he knew nothing about his background.

                “I’m fine, can you just order some pizza?” he asked trying to sidetrack him and rubbed the towel along his tail. _Come on, just dry already, dry!_ Dean didn’t know how long it took but every second counted right now.

                “You don’t sound alright…” he said worried and looked at the door wondering if he was ready to break it down. Castiel bit his lip lightly slowly realizing that Dean had grown on him, a lot and he was actually hoping he could get Dean to stay longer somehow. He liked his company and even though he felt like he was hiding something else, he still wanted to be around him. “I’m going to break the door down.” he stated and backed up a few steps before rushing at the door and throwing his shoulder against the door. Dean jumped at the sound and cursed, something else he had found out while watching television causing him to rub his tail a little harder. He was feeling a little pain and knew he was making some of his scales raw but having legs was pretty important. Castiel tried throwing his shoulder against the door one more time before kicking at the door and it opened up to Dean sitting on the ground with a towel around his waist and him standing on his legs.

                “I was just finishing up a bath.”

                Castiel was glad he was alright and looked over at the tub trying to figure out what could have made the thump sound. “I’m sorry for worrying.” he apologized when he realized there was no reason for it.

                “Don’t worry about it.” he smiled at him and picked up his clothes before leaving the bathroom to get dressed in the living room.

                Castiel looked in the bathroom again and walked over to the slowly draining tub to pick up the salt container on the side of the tub. _Why would he need that?_ He looked around the bathroom slowly curious as to what had fallen over but there was nothing and Dean didn’t look hurt. He sighed going to put the salt back in the kitchen and by that time Dean was already under the covers trying to get to sleep after that close call. “Good night Dean.” he said again as he walked back to his room.

                “Night.”


	5. Aquarium

                The next morning, Walter was still studying the sea at Cape Cod. He suddenly looked up at the surface and grabbed for the cord. Walter pulled on it and after nothing changed, he quickly took off from the sea floor to head back up to the surface. When he finally got to the surface he climbed the ladder for a few rungs before taking off his mask. He took a couple deep breaths then climbed the rest of the way up and throwing his mask down onto the deck. Walter looked around and focused on the youngest brother. “Hey! B.B. Brain!” he yelled at him.

                “Yeah?” he asked squinting a little from the brightness of the sun.

                Walter grabbed the hose and pulled at it, “You see this hose?!” The brother looked down at the hose. “This is so I can breathe!”

                “Uh huh.” he nodded.

                “You want to get your chair off it?!”

                The brother furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at the back leg of his chair to see it was on the hose. He didn’t panic or anything as he slowly scooted the chair off taking a few times before he finally got off the cord.

                Walter still wasn’t thrilled about it and climbed the rest of the way onto the deck. The older brother was sitting off to the side, holding a newspaper, and laughing at how difficult it looked for Walter to get back onto the boat in his wet suit. Walter glared a little over at him and noticed the paper right away. “The Star Confidential?”

                “Yeah.”

                “Why are you reading that?”

                “I don’t know.” he shrugged just reading it because he could.

                “What possess the uneducated to purchase these things?!” he exclaimed as he walked over to the older brother glaring a little more with each step.

                “Interesting.” he tried answering for him.

                Walter rolled his eyes as he motioned to the paper and the brother. “You’re not helping yourself! You’re not, this isn’t news! Give me this.” He snatched the paper from his hand and shook his head. “You know what this is? Nothing! Only sex and perversion, not real news. It’s all fabrication!” he shouted closing the paper and seeing the front news story. It was of Dean, naked in front of the Statue of Liberty but of course it only showed him from the torso up. “Look at this! Where did they find a guy to do that?”

                The brothers raised their eyebrows and only one of them grabbed the paper back looking at the front page. It wasn’t that bad of a picture but it was still interesting to know that someone had walked into a public place naked. A few seconds and steps away from the paper, Walter suddenly stopped looking back at the paper. He didn’t realize it at first but that might be the same guy that he saw in the sea, the same _merman_. He came back and pushed the older brother’s head back causing him to hit the back of his head on the wall of the boat. “Ow! My head!” he whined grabbing the back of his head with both of his hands.

                “Let me see that.” he demanded as Walter grabbed the paper from him and opened it up to the continued story of the newspaper. His eyes were moving fast as he read the story trying to get everything he could from the article. Walter needed to find this man and prove that mermaids existed. The brothers watched him waiting for a reaction and suddenly he closed the paper. “Take me back to shore, now!” he ordered. The brothers couldn’t move any faster since they were getting tired of Walter picking on them, ordering them around, and just being downright mean.

***

                Castiel knew that Dean wanted to go to the aquarium so they were busy getting dressed and ready for the day. He knew he should go to the office but his brother already knew that he had company so he was covered. He still had a feeling he could trust his brother and he would let him do whatever as long as the business kept up while he was gone. Castiel opened the door to his room heading to the living room. “Dean?” he asked him seeing the other male was nearly glued to the television. He raised an eyebrow and looked around his head to see he was watching Dr. Sexy. “Why are you watching that?”

                “I really like it.” he said already having a favorite character and wondered why they didn’t play it all day long. Most of the shows were not as interesting as this and he would rather watch this than anything else on the television. “My favorite character is Dr. Sexy.”

                Castiel smiled a little at that and nodded. “If you want to go to the aquarium, we can go now.” he reminded him.

                Dean was actually slow from turning away from the television and looking back at him. “We can go now?” he asked earning a nod. “Then let’s do it.” he said getting up to lead the way out of the room.

                “Hold on!” said Castiel trying to keep up with him since the mention of the aquarium got him moving so fast.

                It really didn’t take them that long to get to the aquarium and Dean didn’t really listen to anything any of the employees were saying because he knew what he wanted to see, everything. He wanted to see what animals they had here or if they had mermaids for some reason. Dean was a little paranoid and may actually want to see if they had different animals then he ran into in the sea. It was just hard to figure out what he was doing now and felt like he may be enjoying his time too much with Castiel instead of researching the safety of his colony.

                Castiel lead the way into the aquarium and to the ticket office so that they could buy two tickets. Most of the people at the aquarium were families taking their children since it was more of an educational and child facility but Dean definitely looked like a child so far. The people in front of them were reading the introduction panels and Dean didn’t look twice at them heading straight for the first area where they have the animals. “Why did you want to come here?”

                “I really like the sea.” he answered with a shrug and the first exhibit they came across was a Shark and Ray Gallery with a touch pool. There was a lot of information about the sharks they had and the rays but what really got Dean was the touch pool. Dean really liked it because he could stand right next to the glass and watch as sharks and rays swam by him. He placed a hand on the glass and looked around trying to spot more than just the few animals who came to look at the people who stood near the glass. “They have a lot of sharks…” he said softly as he watched them swim around.

                “They can get the sharks and rays like this very easily and the people who send the animals here know that they will be taken care of.” stated Castiel watching Dean more for his face and how happy he was to be looking around at these sea creatures. Castiel had a feeling he liked the sea since it looked like he might have spent a lot of his time swimming and wondered what job he did. All in all though, he was glad that Dean had come across him when he did.

                Dean’s eyes widened when he saw one of the rays come toward the window, right for his hand. He held it up higher so that the ray could come close to the window slowly turning and moving so that he could get a good look at it. “We don’t have these where I live.” he said softly as the tail swung around and came close to his tail. He so badly wanted to jump into the tank and join them in swimming but he couldn’t do that, not yet or maybe never.

                “They can be pretty dangerous if you’re not careful. There was someone a few years back that was actually killed by one of them.” pointed out Castiel wanting him to be safe and careful if he really did like the creatures as much as he did. It was better to respect the creatures and live beside them as their equals.

                “I understand perfectly, they are not the only animals in the sea that are dangerous.” nodded Dean before he turned to leave the exhibit and look at the next one which was right to the left. Dean looked at the signs not really wanting to read them but could tell the exhibit was called “Go Fish”. He didn’t understand the term and looked over at Castiel. “Are they rooting for the fish?” he asked him.

                “No that’s not what that means, they catch the fish.” explained Castiel leading the way to where a couple kids were fishing in the area. They weren’t using hooks because that would harm the fish and mainly what they did was feed them but give the illusion like they could catch them. Dean didn’t really like the look of this because he had seen it before awhile back. There was a large net involved and it took at least fifty fish from the sea. Humans did have some scary technology and some of it was dangerous to them. He tried not to look too scared even if the fish weren’t getting hurt and Castiel noticed it all. He could see Dean being uncomfortable and on top of that, it was strange to watch the fish kind of follow Dean as he walked around the tank looking them over after each one went for the trap. “You don’t like this exhibit do you?”

                “Not really.” he answered looking over at Castiel and wanting to move on.

                “There’s more to see.” he assured Dean and motioned for him to follow.

                Dean followed Castiel coming up to the labs they had. It gave a sneak peek into how they took care of the sick animals and if needed, breed some of the animals so that they didn’t have to go out into the wild and bring more here. Dean was a little more interested into this glad to see that they knew their jobs. “They know how to take care of the animals.”

                Castiel nodded, “They went to school and there’s always new technology to help keep the animals safe. There are people that actually care about the other life on Earth…” he said being one of them. He loved taking care of animals and wished he could have one in his apartment because when he was a kid he always had a cat with him. They were always strays but he loved taking care of animals and treating them how he would want to be treated.

                “You are pretty nice.” pointed out Dean looking over at Castiel who didn’t look at him right away.

                “Thanks, I try to be nice to everyone.”

                The two soon moved on and came across the Meerkats exhibit. It was strange for there to be a Meerkat exhibit but since Dean had never seen the animals that lived on land he was staying close to the glass. “What are these things?”

                “Meerkats, small ground hogs?” tried explaining Castiel.

                “I’ve never seen them before.”

                “They can be really hard to spot and they are mostly found in Africa.”

                Dean nodded at that not going to ask about where or what Africa was and probably looked way to suspicious already. He did like how they acted staying in the ground for the most part except to poke out their head and gather food. There was way too much to take in and he had a feeling there would be some things he would forget before he got back. The Meerkats were busy running around and he went to the lower level so he could see the tunnels that they built. It was amazing to see what they could do on land and he felt small since he couldn’t do much from living in the sea. He could swim really well, fight under water, but that was about it. “Cas, I don’t know how I’ll be able to only stay for seven days.” he said honestly becoming really intrigued and may want to stay longer.

                “You can stay longer.” he offered because he didn’t mind if he did.

                “I can’t…I have problems with staying.”

                “I can help surpass them.”

                “It’s not that easy.” he sighed looking up at Castiel and staring at him. Dean really hoped that somehow he could make it happen or something would happen that he could stay longer. He didn’t want to go back and that was saying something. He took care of his brother because his dad was busy training new soldiers and even though his brother wasn’t a kid anymore he still needed to be watched so he wouldn’t go off to the human world. “I don’t want to miss my family.”

                Castiel really wanted to help him but if it was a family thing then he knew he couldn’t leave. “Alright but I am here for you.” he assured him. Dean loved to hear that and knew with each passing hour he only wanted to stay more with Castiel. He just hoped that when the time did come for him to really decide he would choose the right option. If he really did choose to stay with Castiel, he would have to tell him everything. Dean looked down at his legs wondering if he would accept him if he told him about his natural tail. “Dean, there’s a movie going to show in a few minutes, why don’t we go watch that?” asked Castiel seeing that he was beginning to look down and he didn’t want Dean to look sad when all he needed was time to find a way to help him stay here. Being selfish wasn’t going to help in this situation but he really didn’t want him to go.

                “What do you mean by movie?” asked Dean following after Castiel as they walked into the IMAX Theater. Dean’s eyes widened slightly at the size of the screen and sat down next to Castiel. “How can we watch this screen?” he asked.

                “It’s a lot easier than you think.”

                Dean nodded but really didn’t listen as he focused on the screen and his eyes widened even further when the movie began to play. It was a movie about the infamous Tornado Alley and this was a kind of weather that Dean knew nothing about. He hadn’t even really come across a hurricane either because where they lived it was calm except for some intense storms and they were usually at the sea floor. “Tornado?” he asked Castiel looking over at him.

                “Yes, it’s a type of weather that can destroy towns pretty easily and it is made up of air.” he explained but not doing that great of a job since he wasn’t a scientist.

                The movie was a documentary about how people were studying the tornados and trying to get information from inside of them. It was very dangerous and there were plenty of problems. Dean couldn’t believe what just air could do and it didn’t help he never spent much time on the ground. He was amazed and not as scared as most people were of tornados. He kind of wanted to experience it or at least see one from a distance. The screen definitely made it seem real and Castiel was right, as the movie continued to play he didn’t really care about the size of the screen or being able to see everything. When the movie was over Dean didn’t really want to get up and wanted to watch another one. “Cas, is there tornados here?”

                Castiel shook his head and wondered if he was scared but when he looked at him he saw no fear at all. “No, there are no tornados here. We get a lot of rain and snow but never tornados.”

                “What is snow?”

                “A frozen form of rain.”

                Dean furrowed his eyebrows wishing he was better at explaining things but finally got up from his seat so they could go up two floors and continue looking at exhibits. Models of Boats were next and Dean looked at all of them. He recognized a lot of them while on his journey out to scout for the colony and there were a few he recognized that were on the sea floor. Dean stopped at one boat that looked like the one that Sam put all of his research of the humans in. He smiled at that and stared at the boat in its complete form. From what the little sign was saying it was an 18th century Colonial Schooner. _My brother definitely found an awesome looking boat._ “I’ve seen a lot of these.” he said out loud not able to keep the comment to himself.

                “Do you spend a lot of time on the sea?” asked Castiel watching him look over the boats and looked at the boat he stopped at a little longer. It was a nice looking boat and he wondered if he had seen that one.

                “You could say that.” he agreed stopping at another boat. This boat definitely brought back a bad memory because it was the first boat he saw after his mother had died. He always assumed it was this boat that had killed her. Dean looked at the name of the boat just so he could figure out the name of his mom’s killer. It didn’t have a specific name other than a fishing boat. His body tensed up and he rested his hand on the glass as it slowly formed a fist.

                Castiel could tell something was wrong and walked up beside Dean. “Dean? Is there something wrong?” he asked him softly.

                Dean turned glaring at Castiel but when he saw the confusion only grow more on his face it softened. “My mom died at sea, that’s all.” he said before continuing onto the next exhibit.

                “I’m sorry Dean.” he said as he followed after him and soon came to the frogs. Dean didn’t look too enthused anymore as he looked at the frogs trying to let go of what happened to his mom. It was hard and he only wanted to keep it from happening. He was glad he didn’t have to worry about dying with Castiel, he was very nice. Castiel soon came up and set his hand on Dean’s shoulder catching his attention. Dean didn’t look angry but grateful at the small comforting touch. It was more than anything he would have expected and proved that Castiel was really a good guy.

                “Thanks.” he said before continuing on with the exhibits which went by very quickly until they got to the schooling tank. Many different schools of fish were in the same tank but they would not prey on one another. Dean instantly recognized some of the fish and smiled again. He set his hand on the tank and some of the fish came swimming to him before going off. “This is amazing how they have so many different animals from the sea.” he stated and Castiel nodded.

                “There’s still one more exhibit to see too.” he said glad that he was at least feeling better again.

                Dean’s attention was on the fish until something else splashed into the water. His eyes focused on the shape as it began to swim close to the tank. Some of the kids excitedly joined Dean’s side and pointed at it.

                “It’s a mermaid!” exclaimed one of the girls and Dean furrowed his eyebrows before the shape finally appeared so he could see it.

                Dean’s heart stopped for a few seconds as he watched the mermaid swim around and smile at the kids waving at them. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing and he probably looked really frightened as he took a step back. They had someone of his kind in here and that meant that things could be very bad for him. The mermaid looked really happy though as she swam around and right as Dean was ready to run away he noticed air bubbles leaving her mouth. His fright instantly disappeared and he studied her closely. The tail wasn’t part of her, it looked wrong and the fins weren’t moving like they should and on top of that she went to the surface before coming back. He turned around to face Castiel, “Is that real?” he asked looking serious.

                Castiel was caught off guard by how serious he looked but he didn’t want him to believe in the wrong thing. “No, she’s not.” he answered.

                Dean knew that if she was real she wouldn’t need to breathe so he waited again to watch her go back to the surface before he relaxed again. “I’m glad she’s not.” he said or he would be very worried and want to leave this place as soon as possible. He continued to watch her picking out various things that were wrong from how he had seen his family move and knew that she wasn’t natural. It was a lot easier as he continued to watch her but she soon left the tank, probably with some help from someone else. As he watched her go for a little longer he couldn’t help from want to swim along with his family again.

                “Do you really like to swim?” asked Castiel finally getting some kind of a clue as to why he looked so sad. He knew he loved the water even though his mother died at sea and this was a lot of guessing but he wasn’t talking to him.

                Dean looked at him wondering if he could read his mind because he had never talked about how he likes to swim. “I do, I really do.”

                “We can go to a pool if you want?” he suggested.

                “No.” he said quickly and his eyes widened slightly as well. The last thing he needed was Castiel figuring out what he was way before he even thought about planning it.

                Castiel furrowed his eyebrows, “Why not?”

                “I just can’t.” he answered before he continued but nothing special happened at the last exhibit other than Dean looking at the sharks. He had only fought one of them but most of the time they didn’t run into the sharks. He was glad since he didn’t want to really see the sharks for any longer than he already had just by glancing at the tanks.

                The rest of the day went really well, the two of them got closer with each other and Castiel was still trying to think of a way to keep Dean here longer than a week. Sure it had only been a few days but he really liked Dean and Dean really liked him. They were definitely hitting it off as much as they could without being physically intimate. Castiel planned a little something even though it wasn’t swimming he was sure Dean would like it. He didn’t tell him where they were going but when they got to the ice rink Dean was looking at the ice with complete wonder.

                “What is wrong with the water?” he asked as he watched people skate around. He knew it was supposed to be water but no one could walk on it like these people were.

                “It’s been frozen…you haven’t seen a small lake or something frozen before?” he asked knowing he shouldn’t be surprised anymore but he couldn’t help it. Dean was staring at the frozen water until Castiel gently nudged his arm and he looked over to see him holding a couple pairs of skates. “It’s going to be difficult at first but I’ll show you.” he smiled at him.

                After a few minutes of getting the skates on and Dean wobbling a little to the side of the rink they were finally on the ice. He wasn’t too excited to get moving as he still tried walking with the skates and Castiel began skating ahead of him. Dean watched him and everyone else on the ice skate really well and here he was barely moving. An old couple even had to pass him a few times which only spurred his need to learn even more. Where he was from he was at the top of his prime and if he couldn’t go faster than an older person, then he wasn’t worth anything to the colony.

                By the time Castiel came back from his one lap he could see the intense concentration on Dean’s face. “Dean?” he asked starling him slightly.

                “This is ridiculous.” he said because he could swim laps around all these people if they were in his environment.

                “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you’d dislike this so much.” he said furrowing his eyebrows and Dean instantly felt bad. He was taking his anger out on Castiel just because he was the only one who was speaking to him.

                Dean sighed a little and shook his head. “It’s fine, I just need a few minutes.” he assured him before he finally began getting the movements right. It still took a little longer before he could actually get some kind of momentum and began to go around the rink.

                Castiel came up beside him and smiled at Dean. “You’re getting the hang of it.” he smiled at him and Dean nodded smiling back.

                “About time.” he said and even after a few more minutes he began to gain speed. Castiel was even having a little trouble to catch up because he didn’t want to run into anyone yet Dean was having no problem to dodge the other people skating. Every time someone was about to get in front of him, he just easily moved to the side and even though there some impossible looking holes for him to fit he got through them. Dean was really showing how well he could pick up everything that Castiel showed him.

                It was an hour before they finally took their first break Castiel and Dean were laughing and having a good time. Castiel had completely forgotten about thinking of a way to keep Dean here and Dean had forgotten about going back. The more time the two spent together the more they grew together. Both of them had their own reasons of liking the other but they couldn’t exactly speak it out yet. Dean leaned back against the bench looking at the sky with a wide smile on his face. “The frozen water is awesome.” he said glad Castiel took him here.

                “I’m glad you had fun once you got the hang of it.” he said as he leaned forward to take off his skates. Dean continued to look up at the sky slowly remembering about his home and his smile faded off his face. “Dean, are you really having fun here?” asked Castiel as he looked over at him seeing his smile had disappeared.

                “I am.”

                “Then…why couldn’t you stay?” he asked just confused. “I can help you move and help you settle here.”

                Dean shook his head at that moving to take off his skates. “It’s not that easy, it really isn’t.” he urged getting tired of trying to explain it.

                “Do you not like it here?”

                “I do like it here.”

                “Why do you want to leave then?”

                “I can’t go back if I stayed longer.” he sighed.

                “That sounds ridiculous.” stated Castiel shaking his head before thinking of a better question. “Why would you want to stay here?”

                Dean wasn’t sure why he didn’t stop himself or at least think of something else to say. “You.” he answered honestly.

                Castiel was taken aback and stared at Dean who stared right back at him. Dean didn’t understand why the answer mattered but as he continued to stare his eyes looked down at Castiel’s lips. When he was home he had the urge to be with a lot of the girls but never had a strong urge like this before. Instead of him being the one to cave in, Castiel was the one to lean forward and kiss him. The reality of how far they had actually gotten scared Dean. What if he couldn’t return home? What if he wanted to stay? What would he do in five days? It was all too much and he only returned the kiss for a few seconds before he pulled away and took off.

                “Dean!” yelled Castiel running off after him but he had the skates in his hand and one of the employees quickly dodged out to grab him.

                “You have to leave the skates sir.”

                Castiel glared at him and dropped the skates before continuing to run after him. Even with just the few seconds to look at the other and drop the skates he had already lost Dean. He was afraid he had just ruined things between them and that is why he needed to catch up and find him. “Dean!” he yelled again hoping he would stop or slow down.

                Dean didn’t have plans on doing either having too many questions and too many feelings about what just happened to stop. It felt great to be moving because it kept him from focusing on the important things and he heard Castiel yell a few times but he quickly lost track of him. He wasn’t sure of how long he had run and soon had to hide underneath a bridge from the rain. If he got wet he would sprout a tail and that was the last thing he needed right now.

                Castiel had searched for Dean all night and when he couldn’t find him or even see a hint of where he had gone he ended up at his warehouse sitting against the wall. He was looking up at the sky watching it slowly turn to day and wondering what he had done wrong. Kissing was probably taking it too far but he couldn’t help it, he wanted to kiss him, wanted to show him that he had a place here that he could stay. It obviously didn’t work as he closed his eyes praying that Dean would somehow find him.

                Right as Castiel was falling asleep there were footsteps walking up to him. “Cas?” he asked.

                That startled him and he quickly opened his eyes seeing Dean. He slowly got up to his feet and was glad to see Dean wasn’t wet from the rain last night. “Dean? Are you okay?”

                “I’m fine.” he assured him with a smile and that got Castiel to smile. “I just needed time to think about the offer you had last night.”

                “I didn’t even tell you everything yet.”

                “It doesn’t matter, I still thought about it and I think I want to stay with you.”

                Castiel couldn’t help but smile a little wider at that. “How about we go and get some breakfast?” he offered.


	6. Two Dinners

                After Dean and Castiel had breakfast, Castiel had to go out with his brother. Gabriel wasn’t really worried but he wanted to know how things were going with Castiel and his savior. He wasn’t even in the office yesterday which is why he really needed to catch up. The two of them walked into a locker room as men were either taking showers or getting dressed. “You accepted an invitation to a political dinner?” asked Castiel definitely surprised that he would even do that.

                “The president is going to be there and just getting the invitation means a lot. It won’t hurt, just go, sit, and look pretty while the president speaks.” he said with a smile as they stopped at a couple lockers to change into workout clothes.

                Castiel still didn’t want to go because he hadn’t gotten an answer yet if Dean was really going to stay and he wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. “It was an invitation for two correct?” he asked him.

                “Yes it was, why?” he asked figuring they would go.

                “Can…I go with Dean instead?” he asked his brother.

                Gabriel was thoroughly surprised now expecting Castiel to go with him since they hadn’t done much the past few days. If he wanted to go with Dean that meant that he was really getting attached to him. “You like him don’t you?” he asked as a small smirk began forming on his lips.

                Castiel quickly looked away to finish getting dressed. “He’s leaving in four days and I just want to spend more time with him.” he said even though it didn’t help his case of hiding how he liked Dean.

                “It’s alright Cassie~, you can go with him as long as we can go to dinner tonight, all three of us.” he smirked wider.

                Castiel instantly knew that it wasn’t going to go as perfect as he would want because Gabriel would have his own agenda. “Maybe he’ll be up for it tonight.”

                “Oh, he will, trust me.” winked Gabriel before leading him out of the locker room so they could go play racquetball. The brothers got into a court and Gabriel started it up and served it. “So you like him but he’s leaving.”

                “Yes he’s leaving.” he sighed not wanting to be constantly reminded about it.

                “Have you given him the option of staying with you?” he asked.

                “Of course I have Gabriel.” he said as he missed the ball giving Gabriel a point. He picked it up and served it to Gabriel.

                Gabriel and Castiel continued to volley it back and forth as Gabriel thought of another way to approach the subject. “Where should we go tonight then?” he asked with a small smirk as he saw his brother miss the ball. At least this way asking questions about this mysterious Dean would give him easy points since Castiel would usually win.

                Castiel frowned a little as he picked the ball back up to serve it again. “He likes seafood.”

                “So we could probably go to a Red Lobster?” he suggested.

                “I guess but we should really ask him before making pla-“

                “Red Lobster at seven then, I’ll just meet you two there.” smiled Gabriel getting another easy point in.

                “Gabriel, you shouldn’t just plan this. What if Dean doesn’t want to go out to eat tonight?” he asked stopping the game to look over at his brother.

                Gabriel only saw opportunities with that statement and wrapped an arm around his brother’s shoulder. “Oh, so you have other plans that you two could do at your hotel room, all by yourself?” he asked.

                Castiel’s face flushed slightly at that and he shook his head. “Definitely not what I meant Gabriel.”

                “It is what you meant~.”

                “No! I was thinking about trying the offer to go swimming again because he really likes the ocean.” he stated leaving his brother’s side so they could continue playing.

                Gabriel sighed a little and got into position. “Cassie, you don’t have to worry about it too much okay? I’m not doing this to be mean. I just want to meet the person that is making my brother fall in love.”

                Castiel messed up his serve and had to grab the ball so he could try again. “Love?” he asked never bringing up that word so it was a wonder how his brother could just pull that out of the air. “I never said I liked him.”

                “I can tell you haven’t been head over heels like this with anyone or willing to skip spending time with little ol’ me.” explained Gabriel and as much as Castiel wanted to say he didn’t have a point, he did.

                “I might like him.” he admitted but he wouldn’t ever admit that to Dean. Castiel still wasn’t sure if it was the kiss or the idea of having him stay here freaked out Dean or not. He wanted to find out to make sure that he wouldn’t mess it up again. Last night was the worst night of his life. He didn’t know where he had gone or if he was doing okay. Maybe he was falling in love with Dean because normally if there was a bad fight or something wrong with Anna he would let her go and not care until they spoke to each other again. This time he felt tightness in his chest and stayed up all night walking around the city trying to find him. “I do…” he said softly.

                Gabriel smiled widely at that and quickly hugged his brother tightly. “Now just trust your instincts and do what feels right.” he smiled. He wasn’t the best at giving advice since he hadn’t even tried settling down yet but at least he could do his best to make sure his brother had the best life he could have. Castiel had done a lot, taken a lot of the responsibility after Michael died which is why he was pushing this so much. “Still up for seven right?”

                Castiel smiled a little at that as he returned the hug and nodded. “Yes, we’ll meet you there at seven.”

***

                Walter Kornbluth had called everyone who would listen and could make it to today’s morning meeting once he got off the boat. He hadn’t given them exact details of what would be discussed but he made sure they knew it was science’s greatest discovery. However, when they sat down to listen to him they were all surprised and it also quickly turned to anger. All of them were busy with their own work and own studies. They didn’t have time to chase down myths and it was Dr. Ross who stepped in to make sure Walter got an earful.

                “This is what we came to hear?!” he exclaimed. Walter looked pitiful at the end of the table and at the other end it was full of scientists who personally wanted to hit him for his stupidity. “You call and tell us you have stretched the frontiers of paleontology and zoology. We interrupt important, serious work to fly here on a moment’s notice and you give us mermaids?” he yelled. “Don’t call us, call the comic book companies.” he finished before look at the other scientists sitting at the table. “That is enough, we have a seminar in three weeks and I need everyone to be ready for it.”

                Once everyone cleared out of the room the oldest scientist was left behind with Walter sitting at the table and looking dejected. “I don’t know what happened…you were the brightest in my class.” he started walking slowly behind Walter who only looked worse as he continued to speak. “True, you were emotionally twelve years old.”

                “I was twelve.” he pointed out to him.

                “That’s right.” he nodded remembering how bright of a future he had back then but now as the years progressed, he wasn’t so sure about it anymore. “Look at what you’ve become! A schmuck!” he exclaimed walking quickly back behind Walter but slowed down as he began walking to the door.

                Walter couldn’t take this from his mentor and mumbled, “There is a merman in New York City.”

                That made the older scientist run back to where Dr. Ross was sitting and pick up the newspaper. “You mean this, this naked man?” he asked looking over at Walter with an unimpressed look. “How come he’s got legs?”

                “He has legs out of water and fins in the water.” explained Walter as he got out of his chair to head toward him. “You taught me that Dr. Zidell, remember?” he asked as the doctor sat back into a chair. “You taught me all the legends. You showed me the charts on your office walls where sailors had claimed they had seen mermaids.”

                Dr. Zidell was nodding his head slowly as he said that but he also shook his head reaching to grab Walter’s hand. “Walter, that was for fun, for relaxation, not for you to build your whole life on.”

               Walter didn’t accept that explanation and pointed at his chest. “I’m going to prove to you and to everyone else that, that man is a merman!” he declared getting up from his seat and heading to the door.

                Right before he could leave Dr. Zidell laughed a little. “What are you going to do? Get him wet so everyone can see he has fins?!” he asked but could tell right away that Walter didn’t take it as a joke by the way he turned back to him and a small smirk appeared on his face.

***

                Castiel had decided to take Dean around the town again and do a little more shopping to pass the time until they went to dinner. Dean liked to be out looking around at all of the people and even if he did lose track of Dean, he was easy to find thanks to his height. They were currently walking down a busy street with Dean pointing out certain buildings he had seen on television and places that he had questions about. The two of them were too busy talking to notice Walter, sitting in a parked car and watching them walk up the street and soon pass them. He saw them disappear behind some smoke from a construction area and quickly got out of the vehicle into the back where he grabbed two buckets of water.

                Walter than began to half run and fast walk after them doing his best to not spill any of the water out of the buckets. He had a camera hanging around his neck ready to take a picture at a moment’s notice. He could barely see Dean’s head from where he was at as more people appeared on the sidewalk making it more difficult to navigate through the crowd. At one point he actually spilled a handful of water out of one of the buckets because he had bumped into someone. What he didn’t realize, is that when he bumped into that one person, he had lost track of Dean and Castiel. The two people he was following looked so alike that anyone could have mistaken it. He was getting excited as he began catching up that when they did stop all he did was set the buckets down and grab one at a time to throw it on “Dean”. There were exclamations from other pedestrians trying to figure out what he was doing and when he lifted the camera, he realized he had made a big mistake.

                Both men were pretty tall and built and one of the biggest clues as to how big of a mistake it had been was on their jackets. They were both part of the New York Giants and the one who got drenched looked very angry. He glared at Walter and took a few steps before grabbing the camera to get it out of the way.

***

                Dean was surprised that he was going to meet Castiel’s brother and he wasn’t nervous about it either. He wanted to see what his brother was like since he was older and it was probably better to get to know at least one more human to bring back information to his brother. He was really beginning to miss Sam and on the way to the restaurant, he was quiet again. Usually he would talk about Castiel’s day and ask questions if he had come across anything new but this time he was quiet.

                Castiel felt like something was wrong and looked over at Dean a few times hoping that he was going to be okay. After they had got to the restaurant he paused setting his hand on Dean’s arm to have him wait a second. “Dean, is everything alright?”

                Dean thought he had hidden his trouble well enough and before he could think of a lie he told the truth. Hopefully this little habit would stop if he tried asking about where he came from again. “No, I miss my brother. I’m kind of used to having him around every day.” he admitted.

                “I know how that feels but you’ll be seeing him soon right? This is the third day you’re here so only four more.” he reminded Dean hoping that would cheer him up a little.

                “That is true.” he nodded giving him a small smile but he kind of wanted to stay here and if he did, then he wouldn’t be able to see his brother ever again. Yet his desire didn’t wane at all as they walked into the restaurant.

                Gabriel was waiting to see his brother walk in and when he saw him his eyes quickly focused on the person right behind him. He raised an eyebrow not expecting him to look like a model. He was taller than Castiel, green eyes that could stick out in a crowd, freckles and a nicely built body. Not a lot of muscle but enough to make him look fit. Gabriel whistled when they walked over to him, “Nice catch Castiel.” he smirked.

                Castiel quickly shook his head and Dean didn’t like how Gabriel said that. “I wasn’t caught and captured.” he said because he would never get caught. Staying longer would increase those chances but he really didn’t want to leave Castiel after four more days.

                “It was a joke.” pointed out Gabriel having a feeling that his brother would find someone just like him.

                “It’s not a very good joke.”

                Castiel smiled a little at that and at how Gabriel pretended to look hurt. “Why, that’s not very nice.”

                “I wasn’t told to be nice.” he stated.

                “Cassie! Doesn’t this guy know anything about meeting his family’s boyfriend?” he asked looking at his brother and Castiel’s eyes widened.

                “I never said that we were dating.”

                Gabriel put up his hand to keep his brother from making any more excuses. “If you weren’t, then he would be rejecting the statement.” he stated and it was true because Dean hadn’t spoken up.

                Castiel felt his face heating up a little as he turned to look at Dean. “Do you know what boyfriend means?” he asked.

                Dean shook his head, “No I don’t. Where I’m from it could mean friend, family, acquaintance, or mate.”

                “Mate? Where do you come from?”

                “A different place.” he answered not going to stop being vague until he made up his mind.

                “You really do like to avoid questions.” he said as Castiel motioned for him to just sit down so that they could move on with everything and Dean followed his lead.

                “Please, just don’t ask a lot of questions. He doesn’t like to talk about where he’s from.” pleaded Castiel knowing his brother was going to be nice but that didn’t stop him from doing what he wanted.

                Gabriel just smiled at him and picked up his menu again. “Alright then, so do you know what his favorite food is then?” he asked.

                “No? He’s trying a lot of food he has never had-“ tried answering Castiel but Gabriel coughed looking over at Dean.

                “What’s your favorite food?”

                “Lobster and it’s hard for us to have it like how you can get it from a restaurant.” he answered not thinking it was that bad of a question.

                “Thank you and you don’t have to answer everything for him, it’s obvious he speaks English.” he pointed out to Castiel as he continued to look through the menu. He was also keeping an eye on how the two interacted and most of the time they didn’t really look at each other at the same time but the few times they did, it was long. That was something new and the guy was taking advice on what to eat from Castiel. “He’ll only offer up the burger.” he said before Castiel could answer.

                “I wasn’t going for just a burger this time Gabriel, I was going to suggest the New York Steak.” he furrowed his eyebrows and Dean flipped his menu to look at it.

                “It sounds good…” he agreed thinking he would actually try it.

                “It’s still red meat which is all my brother will eat.”

                “What makes it red?” asked Dean still looking at Castiel since he trusted him more and the other reminded him a lot of himself. Gabriel seemed to be a prankster and someone who would mess with anyone if given the chance.

                Gabriel saw what Dean was doing and was glad he had at least enough sense to know when someone was a prankster he couldn’t be that naïve as Castiel made it sound. “It’s just the type of meat it is, it’s kind of hard to explain…” stated Castiel but was interrupted as the waiter came to get their drinks and orders.

                Dean ordered pop with a bacon cheese hamburger, Castiel water and a New York Steak (rare), and Gabriel got a fruit mixed drink and the same thing as his brother. “And yet he still ordered a hamburger, I blame you little brother.” he smirked at Castiel who just shook head.

                “Hamburgers are really delicious.” explained Dean thinking he wouldn’t like something from a land animal as much as he did.

                Gabriel didn’t want to argue that much but he still wanted to get to know Dean a little bit more before he agreed about his brother actually letting this guy into his life. “Okay so I know you want to be mute about where you came from but what about your family?” he asked.

                Dean raised an eyebrow slightly at that and he at least told Castiel about his bother and dad, even his mom but never got into any real detail. It couldn’t hurt that much to explain his family when he didn’t have to say anything about them being a different species. “I’ve told Cas a few things already.” he started as their drinks got there and he drank a little of it. “My mom was smart and did a lot of research on the surrounding ecosystems and our dad didn’t like it that much. She ended up dying on one of her research trips and that made my dad want my brother and I to know how to protect ourselves. He taught us everything he learned as a soldier but my brother still wants to be like our mom. I help him get out and find things and cover both of our asses to make sure our dad doesn’t get angry at him.” he explained hoping that it would be enough and it got into a little more detail on how just doing this was bad because that left Sam alone with their father for a week who could find out what Sam has been doing the past few years.

                “You are a caring brother.” complimented Gabriel glad to see that attribute and even though it wasn’t a life story, it was exactly what he wanted to hear. He got a good feel on Dean and how he deals under stress. Gabriel had to commend him for taking the risk to let his brother do what he wanted and make sure he never got found out.

                “Not really, my brother thinks he doesn’t need help and that dad should just find out that he isn’t a soldier but another researcher like our mom. He’s found some great findings like the nerd he is.” he smirked a little but it slowly disappeared again because once again he was thinking about the end of the week.

                Castiel was glad that they were getting along and looked over at Dean seeing him thinking again and rested his hand on his shoulder. “You can go sooner if you want?” he offered to Dean when he looked over at him.

                The two stared at each other again and he shook his head. “I want to stay here until my time is up.”

                Castiel could understand that and looked over at Gabriel seeing him smirk widely. He wished that his brother didn’t do that, they weren’t anything special. It was odd that Dean was talking a little bit more with Gabriel asking the questions but there must be a reason for it because he still trusts them with the information. “I don’t mind if you do that either.” He wanted to make that offer again but he was sure Dean already knew about it and was considering.

                “What has been the most interesting thing you’ve done, seen, or eaten since you’ve been here?” asked Gabriel. It was nice to see that Dean was a fast learner but that also meant he wouldn’t see how he acted with everything that was new to him which an interesting sight to see by what Castiel said.

                Dean had to take a few minutes to think about that because there were a lot of interesting things he’s done, seen and definitely eaten. The hamburger had to be the best invention ever, television was pretty fantastic, but running into Castiel after all those years was pretty awesome. It was very easy to recognize him since he was a soldier and learned to study people very well and he also felt the same vibe he did all those years ago. “Cas.” he answered not sure if he could go into explaining why with Gabriel around but that was the most interesting thing he has come across since he’s been here. After all those years of listening to his father talk about the humans he had created an image as a child so when he saw Castiel jump into the water he was waiting for the worst. Instead it was just a little boy, like him, who found something interesting and wanted to get a closer look. His whole view on humans changed that day and that is why he began to investigate a little further to actually find everything his father said to be lies. Sure there were some humans that were dangerous but there also some dangerous people back at his home.

                “Cassie? My little brother is the most interesting thing you’ve come across?” he asked with surprise and Castiel was looking at Dean with the same surprise.

                “Yes, he changed my view on a lot of things that my father told me.”

                “How did he do that?” asked Gabriel and even Castiel didn’t want to stop that question because he really wanted to know what he had done to make Dean say that. He had seen all of his reactions to everything as they walked around New York City and never once did he seem to be that interested into him. Dean furrowed his eyebrows wondering how to answer but he got saved by the waiter coming back and handing them their plates of food.  “Never mind, I guess the questioning can continue after this.” he smiled and began to dig into his steak.

                Castiel ended up ignoring his steak for a few minutes as he looked at Dean get his hamburger ready. He really shouldn’t be feeling too much for Dean since there was a good chance he was still leaving but with Anna, she never seemed too interested into him and vice versa with her. Their relationship was probably never going to work but with Dean everything felt different. He shouldn’t even be getting his hopes up this much but it would be nice if Dean stayed and maybe they could get intimate. Even that thought had him quickly focusing on his steak to get it out of his mind because now he was remembering Dean being naked and standing in front of him when they first met.

                After the three had eaten dinner they didn’t really ask too many questions other than the two brothers talking a little about their business and about the president’s dinner tomorrow night. Castiel looked over at Dean, “Dean, would you like to come with me tomorrow?” he asked.

                Gabriel pretended to look hurt even though they had already decided on it. “I think it would be better if you two went because then you can see the leader of our country.” he explained to Dean.

                Dean didn’t mind going out again even though he had no idea who the present was. “I would like too.” he nodded.

                “It was nice to speak with you Dean but I’m sure my brother and you have a lot to do before sleeping tonight and I have another appointment to keep.” he smiled and stood up to shake Dean’s hand. “I’ll get the tab as I head out Cassie.” he said hugging his brother before leaving. Gabriel really did like Dean and he could definitely tell that Castiel had a thing for Dean and Dean did as well. He just hoped that maybe after a few more nights, Dean would _really_ like Castiel.

                The other two finished their drinks and walked out of the restaurant to go back home. On the way there they stopped at a park and walked to the edge of the water. There was a statue of two mermaids and Dean couldn’t help but look at it. Castiel glanced at the schedule as well and wondered if he liked mermaids. “Do you like mermaids?” he asked.

                “Yeah, I’m actually really good at swimming like one, how about you?” he asked turning the question on him because how he answered this would be really important to him.

                “Well…I do kind of like them but I think it’s because of something that happened when I was a child…” he said staring at the statue instead of Dean.

                Dean’s eyes widened a little and took a step closer to him. “What happened?”

                Castiel finally looked at Dean and then back at the schedule. “My family was on a trip at Cape Cod, I was watching the water as the boat moved and I saw something in the water. It intrigued me so much that I ended up jumping in. I don’t exactly remember everything after that point but I never felt as safe in the water then I did that day.” he explained.

                Dean couldn’t help but feel very good about that answer and looked at the statue. “Do you remember what you saw in the water?”

                “I kind of do but there’s just no way I saw what I did.”

                “You can tell me.” he assured him.

                Castiel shook his head and turned away from the statue only to feel Dean’s hand on his shoulder. He realized Dean had gotten it from him to help comfort people and it worked. He turned to look at Dean with a small smile. “I will tell you but you cannot tell anyone else.”

                “I promise.” he smiled back at him.

                “I could have sworn that I saw a mermaid, well merman because it was a male.” he answered.

                Dean didn’t know how he should react and he didn’t want Castiel to hate him or be afraid of him because he didn’t react properly. He nodded at that trying to keep his cool. “Do you still believe you saw a merman?”

                Castiel shrugged and looked at the statue one last time. “I don’t know but that was the only time I felt safe in the water.” he stated and continued walking through the park.

                The rest of the walk home went by very fast and Dean’s mind was actually made up by the time they got to Castiel’s apartment. This was going to be a really big decision for him and to top it off, the other thing he wanted to announce was going to be something even bigger. After the door had closed Dean cleared his throat to make sure Castiel knew he wanted to speak and the other male only took off his coat before looking at Dean. “I want to stay here.”

                At first Castiel didn’t think he heard him right and blinked at him slowly. “You…”

                “Want to stay here.” he finished for him. “I will miss my family and everything but I really want to stay here with you.”

                Castiel smiled at him warmly and put his coat away. “I’m glad you decided to stay and you don’t have to go find another place to live, you can stay here with me.” he stated.

                Dean was really glad to hear that but there was also something else he wanted to do with Castiel. When he was home, he did show some interest into the women there but he was always too busy being a soldier to really care. He also didn’t feel the full pull that some of the other men did when they looked at the women. He felt something here and he needed to see if it was what he thought it was. Dean leaned down and kissed Castiel.

                Castiel’s eyes widened and he pulled away after a few seconds. “You do know what that was right?” he asked because he wasn’t sure if he actually meant it or thought that it was needed at the moment.

                Dean smiled at him, “Of course I know what it was.” He leaned down again to kiss Castiel deeper that time and even wrapped an arm around him so he couldn’t pull away that easily. Castiel was thrown off not expecting this to happen at all and felt the urge to pull away again. He just didn’t want Dean to think that he had to do this but he was acting very confident so maybe he really did like him this way. He finally returned the kiss and Dean could tell the difference as he nibbled on his lip getting Castiel to open his mouth. Dean pushed his tongue into Castiel’s mouth and rubbed against his tongue trying to find some sensitive spots. He succeeded after a minute earning a small moan from Castiel.

                “Dean…” he started after he pulled away but stopped when Dean began shaking his head.

                “I want to stay here with you.” he stated.

                Castiel had to take a few seconds to stare at him, knowing how much he was going to be missing by choosing this route. “Why?”

                “I like to be around you and as much as I want to go back, I want to stay here more.” he explained thinking that he might actually love Castiel and that was saying a lot since they hadn’t been together for very long.

                “You can still stay with me.” he assured Dean and that statement earned a bigger smile from Dean. Castiel still didn’t know why Dean couldn’t go back home after this week but he would go with what he said until Dean felt completely trusting with him.

                “Now can we continue kissing?” he asked Castiel before he leaned down again to kiss him deeply. Castiel was quick to return it and wrapped an arm around Dean.

***

                The rest of the night the two got closer to each other, continued kissing and it actually got pretty heated last night. The next morning, neither one of them wanted to get out of bed, Dean had a strong arm around Castiel with the blanket mostly pulled down to his waist, showing that he was fully naked and Castiel was sleeping in loving the idea of being able to snuggle up to Dean any time he wanted too. His back hurt a little still and that’s one of the only reasons he was awake for a few minutes and it was a nice view. He couldn’t believe how quickly things escalated last night and at least Dean knew how to have sex. That would have been very awkward to explain and help. Castiel smiled at Dean watching him breathe slowly and remembering everything he said about wanting to stay and how he was interesting. It felt great to like someone again and he closed his eyes to get some extra sleep.

                During the day, the both of them were pretty much inseparable but Dean knew he had to speak to Castiel about what he was. It was difficult because he was having fun just being around Castiel who had to take care of some business today at work. Gabriel figured out very quickly what had happened last night and instead of being angry or upset which Dean was afraid of since he still didn’t know much about his background, he was happy for them. Dean knew his brother would happy as well and that his brother would be really upset that he wouldn’t be coming back to tell him everything but maybe his brother can come up here? If he did, he would make sure he was there every step of the way until he was ready to go off by himself.

                As the President’s dinner neared, Dean knew he needed to tell him, now but every time he tried to bring it up, they were interrupted. First it was a call, then it was Gabriel, and finally it was getting dressed for the dinner. Dean tugged a little at his suit but it fit perfectly and Castiel stared at him a little longer than usual before he got himself dressed. “Cas...I need to tell you a really big secret.” he stated.

                Castiel nodded at that as he grabbed a tie to put on Dean and then his own. “It can wait until after the dinner.”

                “But it is really important.” he pointed out.

                “I know but you aren’t going anywhere.” he reminded Dean and that got a small smile from him. “Okay, let’s go.” Castiel lead the way out and right outside the door, there was a janitor, mopping the floor. He had a cast on his arm but he was obviously determined to stay at work. The two of them passed the man and got into the elevator to start heading downstairs.

                The janitor turned around to reveal it was Walter again and that he wasn’t going to give up on this anytime soon. After a few seconds he ran to the staircase and began heading down the stairs so that he could beat the couple to the bottom floor. Walter was very determined since he wasn’t tripping or causing any extra damage to himself from the beating earlier and made it before they did. He was barely out of breath as he looked at the elevator seeing that it was still coming and turned to a plant to grab his camera. He also smashed the glass of the fire extinguisher hose since that was going to be the source of water this time around. Walter turned on the water and ran to the elevator door just in time for it to open. He began spraying the two people inside and after a few seconds he dropped it picking up his camera again. Once again, luck wasn’t on his side and to make it even worse it was the same two men he had mistaken Dean and Castiel for earlier.

                “Son of a bitch.” glared the other football player this time since they were both wet and they both walked out ready to beat Walter up.

                Dean looked confused as they were back up on the top floor. “I thought we were heading downstairs?”

                “We are I just forgot the invitations.” stated Castiel quickly running into his apartment and coming back out with the envelopes before heading back downstairs to leave.

***

                Castiel pulled up in his vehicle, knowing it wasn’t as fancy as the limousine in front of them but it didn’t matter. The door greeter opened up the door and let Dean out as Castiel walked around the vehicle to present the invitations. After that they were escorted to their table which was a little far away from where the President and some other high officials were sitting but once again, that wasn’t the priority. Castiel probably wouldn’t have even gone if it wasn’t for Dean. “Now that you’ll be staying longer I’ll have to stock up on more seafood or we could catch some of our own fish.” he smiled.

                Dean looked a little nervous at that, “What kind of fish?” he asked just feeling really paranoid because there was no way he could stay longer without telling Castiel his secret.

                “It could be any kind as long as we eat it and make sure that we don’t go over our quota. To make it easier though we could just buy it all.” he answered.

                Back in the kitchen the boss was walking around feeling the pressure with the President being there. “Why is this bread in here instead of out there?” he asked looking around at the closest chefs. “The butter is hard as a rock!” he complained and turned around to see Walter standing there disguised as a waiter. “Do you have a broken arm?”

                “No! It’s, fractured in sixteen places.” answered Walter with a smile.

                “Why are you here?” he asked the stress of the night catching up with his face since he couldn’t believe that he was here and that badly injured.

                Walter had to think of a quick excuse, “The union sent me.”

                Luckily the music began to play signaling the entrance of the President. The boss perked up at that looking back at the doors that led out of the kitchen. “My God! The President is here!” he exclaimed continuing his quick run through the kitchen.

                “The President is here!” yelled out Walter as well to bring the attention completely away from him. He just needed to get to the table with Dean and Castiel and everything would be fine.

                Out on the floor, the President was escorted by his secret service and everyone was standing and applauding his entrance. He waved at everyone and Dean was following what everyone else was doing but when he saw the wave he did a small wave back since he thought that was supposed to happen.

                Walter was busy while everyone was distracted bending down to unveil two water tanks that could hook on his back and a hose to spray with. It was something an exterminator would use to get rid of bugs but he modified it to work with water. He picked up the hose end and at this time he was definitely desperate for this plan to work as he gave it a kiss for good luck. His eyes widened a little with excitement and took off his coat so he could put the water on his back.

                As the President began to recite his speech, Walter walked out of the kitchen with the bread that the boss wanted out and looked around slowly trying to spot the two. One of the secret service men noticed how Walter was walking around and narrowed his eyes. They were there to protect the President and to report any suspicious persons and Walter was officially in that category. He didn’t notice that he was being watched since he had just spotted the two and began slowly walking to their table. Walter quickly set the bread down and the secret service guy touched his ear piece. “Alert. Alert. Table 5.” Another man looked over at the table and spotted Walter. “Intercept bus boy with suspicious looking hump. The other man began to slowly walk toward Walter since he was too busy focused on Dean. Walter was ready to get him and reached for the end of the hose. “He’s reaching! Get him, get him now!”

                “Sir, I’d like to have a word with you please.” stated the closer man and made sure to stand in the way of the President and Walter.

                “About what?” asked Walter confused. “This has nothing to do with the President!” he tried to reassure them as two other secret service men came to pull him out of the hotel.

                Dean and Castiel along with everyone else sat down and were now paying attention to the small group hauling Walter out as quickly as possible. The President quickly decided to play it off as a joke. “Well, it looks like he just found out what his dinner costs.” he smiled. That got everyone to laugh and quickly ignore what could have been a catastrophe except it wouldn’t have been for the President.

                Walter’s group was quickly growing as press began to follow them out the door. “I want to talk to the press!” he demanded. “I have a formal statement to make!” he exclaimed and actually got the secret service to stop for a few moments.

                Back inside Dean couldn’t take it anymore. It was already killing him enough to know how big of a secret he was hiding from Castiel and looked over at him. Dean really liked him and if he wanted this to work out he had to tell him, no matter the consequences. At least this way if something somehow went wrong he could go back to his home even if it wouldn’t feel right without Castiel. The longer he stared at him the more he knew he could trust his secret with him. Castiel has understood through all of this, answering all his questions and being amazing. He finally leaned forward to gain his attention, “Cas.”

                “Yeah?” he said looking over at Dean and smiling a little at him.

                “It’s time for me to tell you.”

                Castiel looked slightly shocked since he could tell the difference of how he looked this time. It was obviously important and no matter how much he thought he needed to be here, he needed to listen to Dean. “Alright, we’ll go.” he said surprising Dean that time.

                “I thought you’d like to stay.” admitted Dean as he stood up to follow Castiel.

                “It’s important to you and you are becoming a part of my life that makes it more important.” he shrugged.

                Dean had the suspicion that he was becoming like his brother, being a girl about things like this since he was more into relationships and that was because when he heard that, he kissed Castiel. “Thank you.” Castiel smiled at that and took his hand to lead them back outside.

                Walter was still being forced out of the building and everyone was in an uproar about him as well. He finally told them the reason he had the water tanks and why he was there. “I’m not crazy! There’s a merman in there!”

                “Shut up.” ordered one of the secret service men as he got to the sidewalk. “Where’s the goddamn car?!” he yelled into his microphone wanting to get rid of the lunatic as fast as possible.

                Dean and Castiel got out while Walter was still there and Castiel was in a little bit of a hurry since this was important. “The gray BMW.” he stated as he handed the valet the ticket to his vehicle. That left the two of them standing there and waiting for the valet to come back. Castiel looked over at the group and furrowed his eyebrows. “I know that guy…” Dean glanced at where Castiel was looking but had to do a double take. That was the man he ran into while he was swimming to find out about Castiel. He slowly moved to where Castiel was in between him and Walter hoping he wouldn’t see him. “He was on Cape Cod, the day I met you and I thought he was crazy then.” he admitted turning back to Dean.

                Walter gazed over at the couple and his eyes widened. “There he is! There he is!” he exclaimed pointing and renewing his efforts to get free. The only reason he was able to reach down and grab the hose was because the other secret service reached for the car to open the door. That was all Walter needed though and had a tight grip as he pointed it toward Dean. Castiel moved when the water began to spray and avoided most of the water but also gave Dean as an easy target. “Behold! The merman!” he shouted.

                Dean froze up and he shouldn’t have. He was a soldier! Freezing up was for newborns and people who got killed. There was absolutely no reason for him to freeze up but he did and he was paying for it. He felt the change beginning to happen and it didn’t matter if Walter was tackled the damage was done. Dean had fallen to the ground and Castiel was trying to figure out what was going on. His attention had been taken away from Dean to look at Walter but once everything had gone quiet, he looked back at Dean. Castiel’s eyes widened as he studied the green tail that had replaced Dean’s legs. Dean couldn’t believe this happened and when everyone’s shock dispersed, people surrounded him. His soldier instinct finally kicked in and he pushed at anyone who tried to touch him and even tried hitting them with his tail if he had the chance. The secret service were suddenly not interested in Walter and walked over to pick up Dean who was giving them a hell of a time. “Cas!” he yelled out.

                Castiel didn’t answer him though since it was his turn to freeze up. He had barely moved and was only staring forward blanking out. This wasn’t something he expected and he had no idea how to respond. The one thing that pulled him out of his zone was Dean’s yell. He looked up but by that time there was a crowd separating him and Dean struggling to keep from going in the car that the secret service people were trying to shove him in. His voice still didn’t work though just standing and watching until someone else grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to another vehicle that pulled up behind the one Dean was put in.

                Walter was quickly being forgotten after everyone saw Dean and he was trying to get close yet it was difficult thanks to his cast and the small amount of movement it gave him. “Wait, I want to see him. Let me through.” he said but wasn’t given the chance as the cars soon pulled away from the hotel.


	7. Complications

                Gabriel surprisingly didn’t have a date that night but he was glad that things had gone so well for Castiel. He was walking in Battery Park along the edge where the docks of the tour boats were and looking over the water. New York City was definitely better at night since the crowds were not as bad and the lights lit up everything in a beautiful way. He pulled out a twizzler from the package he had in his pocket and began to nibble on it. Gabriel glanced at the Statue of Liberty wondering why Dean ended up there of all places when he got to New York City. The whole mystery of where Dean came from was bugging him only because he was curious about him and wanted to know more just as much as Castiel. He also didn’t know about anything going on at the President’s dinner which was a good thing. If he would have went, he wouldn’t have seen someone climbing up onto the walkway near the tour boat. Gabriel knew that he had to come from the water because the tours didn’t run this late. The last time he saw someone swimming in this part of the lake were dared to go skinny dipping. That may or may not have been him. “Hey!” he called out startling the other person. “Why are you swimming this late?” he asked walking toward the figure.

                The other person at first was hesitant to move into any of the lights. He had specifically chosen this spot because the lights dimmed enough for anyone who spotted him should have had a problem seeing him, should have. “Lick, like too.” answered the other person.

                “Are you drunk?” he asked raising an eyebrow and taking a bite from the twizzler. As he got closer, he realized someone may have gotten the dare as he did awhile back. “Are you…naked?”

                The figure didn’t respond that time but instead stepped into the edge of the light. It was a quick answer for Gabriel as his eyes slowly studied the body in front of him. Whoever it was, definitely knew that it was better to show off a body that looked that good. “I, don’t speak well.” he said as Gabriel finally got up to his face.

                Gabriel didn’t know that it was Sam, Dean’s brother. His hair was shoulder length, a little wavy, brunette and mussed from the air dry but Gabriel had to look back down at his body. He was definitely a porn star. The guy had abs, muscles, tall, and proportioned in every way imaginable with the confidence that his body deserved. He whistled first and smirked widely as his eyes focused on his face again. “I don’t mind that at all.”

                Sam was still having troubles trying to keep up with him since he had only heard the limited conversation he dared to hear from boats that got out as far where they lived. It was also really difficult to learn how to speak their language. “My brother, here four big lights.” he tried explaining and pointing at the moon.

                At first Gabriel was going to say he didn’t know who he was talking about but things clicked quickly. Dean was found at the Statue of Liberty, naked, couldn’t speak English, and he mentioned a brother. “Dean?” he asked.

                Sam looked confused and moved his mouth repeating the word a few times under his breath. Gabriel was about to speak up again before Sam’s eyes widened. “Dean, my brother.”

                “Well then sexy, luck is on your side.” he winked at him motioning for Sam to follow him. Sam glanced at his hand but made no movements to go anywhere. “I know him, come with me.” he urged. Gabriel could tell that the other was hesitant and knew the best way for them to bond. He reached into his pocket taking out another twizzler and handing it to Sam. “Eat it, trust me.” he said also taking a bite of his again.

                “Eat.” repeated Sam as he followed Gabriel’s example and took a bite. His eyes widened and took another bite. Sam really liked whatever it was that Gabriel gave him and moved to walk beside him.

                Gabriel took that as a cue to leave and walked Sam back to his car handing him a twizzler each time he finished one. About time he found someone with the same palate as him and he had a feeling that he would really like this kid, even if he was about a foot taller than him.

                The whole drive back to Gabriel’s place Sam was looking out the window amazed at everything that he had missed while in the ocean. He was so glad he decided to come for the last few days of his brother’s time here. Sam rolled his window down further so he could stick his head out and look around more efficiently. Gabriel knew it was safe with the streets relatively empty and when they got home Gabriel was ready to figure things out from Sam. He didn’t know why the brother just suddenly showed up or why he was the one to find him but he was glad for it. If it was someone else he probably would have been sent to the nut house. People would probably think he was just a crazy person that had escaped and they needed to send him back. “I can take you to Dean so you need to wait until morning.”

                Sam was listening but not at the same time. He also liked that Gabriel gave him a jacket to wrap around his waist. Being out of the water was colder than he would have imagined and he had a feeling that he needed to have more than just the small amount of the language he knew how to say to get by in the city. “How is he?” he asked Gabriel wanting him to talk more so that he could figure out how to speak better.

                “He’s with Cassie.” he answered moving to get some more candy and handing it over to Sam.

                Sam accepted it even if it looked different than the twizzler he had earlier and was glad he did because whatever it was tasted really good. “Cassie?” he asked slowly. “I thought, he found man.”

                Gabriel furrowed his eyebrows at that and nodded. “Don’t worry, it is a guy, his full name is Castiel.” he assured him but remembered that he didn’t really share his name and that the other guy was really trusting to just come with him. “My name is Gabriel.” he introduced himself holding out his hand.

                Sam tilted his head as he reached out to grab his hand and wrapped his fingers around Gabriel’s. He did similar screeching sounds that Dean did for Castiel a few days ago breaking any glass that was nearby. Gabriel blinked slowly not really moving from his spot. “My name.”

                “In English?” he asked hoping that there was an option for that or he would have no idea of what to call him.

                “What English names?”

                Gabriel rolled his eyes and went to get his laptop from his room and hopefully a piece of clothing that would fit him. Sam didn’t follow as he looked around the apartment. It was amazing to see how many things they could have in one room and he really didn’t know anything about what was in here. These were all new things he had never seen since it had been left to things on yachts, boats, cruises and anything else that came across the sea. He walked around and touched everything trying to figure out how it worked. Gabriel wasn’t gone for too long and came back seeing Sam pulling the toaster handle down with nothing inside of it. “You need to put bread in that.” he pointed out. Sam just turned around about to ask what that was and he stopped him there. “Just forget it and for now come here and pick a name but first see if this fits.” he said holding out pajama bottoms. “As much as I’d love to continue seeing you like this, you need clothes.” Sam took the clothing and with some guidance from Gabriel he got them on. They were a little tight but fit and then he looked at the computer where he had pulled up a site with baby names.

                Sam looked at the screen but didn’t touch the computer trying to pick from the fifteen names that began with A. “I don’t like these.”

                “There’s more.” he pointed out and showed him how to go down and even click on another letter.

                Sam focused on the screen again clicking the letter S and didn’t have to scroll down before he saw a name. “Sam.” he said slowly. “That sounds close, Sam.”

                “Then I’ll call you Sam, Sammy, or Samuel.” he smirked seeing how he didn’t like the other two variations very much. “Just Sam?”

                “Yes.”

                “At least we got you a name now so we can talk.” Gabriel closed the laptop and turned on the television so he could watch some of his shows and keep Sam entertained until he could figure out if he really wanted to take him to his brother right away tomorrow. He might want to help him go get some clothes or just take him some places to have some fun with him. His train of thought was stopped though when reporters from outside of the President’s dinner was on talking about a merman. He furrowed his eyebrows turning it up.

                “Just minutes ago, a merman was put into a vehicle and taken away by the government accompanied by a man who both went to the dinner tonight.” started the reporter and a video of the scene playing out was put on for everyone to see. Gabriel’s mouth dropped when he saw that it was Dean on the ground with a tail and when people tried to get close he fought to get away. He tried to see where his own brother was and didn’t see him until some people were taking him away. “I have no idea where these two are being taken but there is a merman in New York City.”

                “Dean…” said Sam softly and Gabriel remembered that he was also in the room. He must have heard his brother or just glanced over to notice him on the television.

                “He’s your brother?” asked Gabriel trying to realize that he must have another merman in his own apartment.

                Sam looked over at him and then back at the television. For a fleeting second he felt like Gabriel would turn him in but when he looked back, he realized that he was upset as well. “Yes, help?” he asked him.

                “Damn straight we’re going to help them.” he stated wondering how he could get Sam to pass as a regular human like Dean had managed for so long. “Water does that right?” he asked earning a nod. “Okay so just continue watching this and get your English better while I find some clothes for you to wear so we can go get more and find my brother which will lead us to yours.” he said and Sam took it seriously sitting down a little too close to the television. Gabriel smiled at that and moved to pull his chair back some. “Don’t want to sit too close.”

                Sam nodded and went back to focusing on the television as Gabriel went into his room. There had to be some bigger clothes left over from some one night stands or something. It was hard though for him to look for clothes when he was thinking about his brother being held captive. He also wanted to know how his brother was doing after finding out that the person he had fallen in love with happened to be a merman. Gabriel hoped that he wasn’t going to do something stupid like he would have in that situation and for some reason he had no urge to throw Sam out or take him to the police. They both had their brothers taken away against their will and no matter who they were or what they were, no one deserved that.

***

                In the morning, Dr. Ross was quickly walking through a corridor and came across an army personnel sitting at a desk and another standing guard at the other side of the hallway. The army man who was armed stood up at attention as the scientist walked by and the one sitting at the desk smiled at the scientist. “Good afternoon Dr. Ross.”

                Ross didn’t say anything back as he continued to walk down the white, very clean corridors. It looked like a hospital but it was obviously a research laboratory since there were some other scientists walking around and army people to help protect the secrets that the scientists were working on. He turned a right down another corridor as someone called for a Dr. Hill over the intercom. “Buckwalter.” he greeted as another army man straightened.

                “Sir!” he exclaimed.

                Ross walked through a door directly into a main control room. Four scientists were looking at computers and writing down things onto clipboards while the fifth one was staring out a window. “Gentleman.” he greeted walking in with a lab coat that he threw on over his suit and went straight toward the woman looking out the window. “Anything?”

                “No change.” she answered still focusing out the window where Castiel was naked in a tank covering himself. He didn’t know why they had to do this to him because he wasn’t a merman like Dean.

                Castiel just became friends and then intimate with one of them but that didn’t mean he was one of them. He was trying to stay calm but as the hours passed and he couldn’t even dare to sleep, he was getting irritated. He just wanted to go home and think to himself instead of having scientists pour themselves over him. “I am not a fish!” he exclaimed hoping that they would just let him go if he finally spoke up. “Will you let me out of here, please?” he asked hoping one of them would talk to him instead of stare or write on their clipboards. He hadn’t even seen Dean but it was probably better since he didn’t know what to say to him.

                “Let’s try some interaction.”

                “Fine, Jim.” she said looking back at another scientist.

                It didn’t take more than ten minutes before they had Dean on a net and using a crane to carry him. They had to sedate him several times already since he used any ounce of fight he had to try getting free or attacking anyone that came too close. His tail looked odd, dry, the color was faded and some of the fins looked like they had to be painful to move. Whatever the scientists were doing to him were causing harm to him on top of the sedation they had to continue using. Dean was lifted over the tank and all he could do at the moment was glare at everyone who was close by before he was dropped into the tank. Castiel moved over so that he could fall in without hitting him but Dean didn’t move all that much. He was actually worried for a second since he didn’t seem to be very happy and he couldn’t blame him. Dean went to the corner at first to look around try to get used to moving again before he surfaced looking at Castiel from the corner. “Idiots probably think you’re one.” he said glaring at the scientists again.

                “Yes but…are you okay?” he asked noticing that something was wrong with Dean and he didn’t seem to be focusing very well.

                “Don’t worry about it.” he said not sure what they were injecting him with but it definitely made him too docile. “I know that my secret is big but I hope you’ll understand.” Dean really needed him to understand because he liked him, he really did. He was willing to stay here with him and even tell him this secret on their own time but now he wasn’t sure if he could stay with him like he wanted.

                Castiel nodded at that slowly, “I want too but right now…”

                “Right now you want nothing to do with me.” he nodded and went back under the water so he could try to rest so when they tried to come get at him again, he could fight.

                Castiel wanted to say something else or even hug him but something was keeping him from doing all of that. Through this whole time he had been there for Dean and now he was chickening out when he really needed him. He hated himself and yet no matter how much he did, he couldn’t move.

                After the experiment didn’t go well Ross shook his head throwing his hands up in exasperation. “He’s been in the water for twelve hours, he’s obviously just a man. Get him out of there so we can concentrate on the other one.” he demanded.

                Not too long after he said that, Castiel was sitting in the back of a van feeling it drive around the city and it soon stopped. He had no idea where he was since there was a blindfold on him and he wasn’t fighting it at all. The door opened and they took off the blindfold pushing him out of the van.

                Castiel stumbled a little and he looked back as the van took off. His suit was askew and his tie was just hanging around his neck. He had no idea of what to do or how he should act right now. His head was still swimming and it was almost like he was sedated at one point because of how foggy his mind was. He just needed something to pull him out of it so he could help Dean, he knew he needed help. The news teams of New York City were waiting for him to show up because he was barely out of the van when they began running out of his hotel. “Greg Martin, W-M-E-T Radio here with Castiel Novak!” he exclaimed into a recording device as he ran to his side. “When did you meet the merman?” he asked as Castiel began to walk toward the door and the rest of the news reporter group came running out to meet him. “Tell me where.”

                “Did you know he was a merman?”

                “Did you actually make love to him?”

                “That’s a stupid question.” he said because there was no way they had to know what him and Dean did, especially if they had sex. Those things were very private for anyone.

                “Did he eat worms?”

                “Would you have to make love to him in water?”

                At this point Castiel was getting very annoyed with their question and glared at the man. “That is none of your business.” By saying it that way he gave away that they did in fact have sex together.

                “Is he a mutant or missing link?”

                “No, no he’s not!” he said wondering where they were even coming up with these questions because now they were just being rude and there was no way he could get his thoughts under control with these idiots bombarding him.

                “I’m from People!” exclaimed a woman getting up close to Castiel. “Is he also seeing Burt Reynolds.”

                Castiel had to stare at her for a few seconds to let it sink in just how much worse these questions will get. “You are definitely not the smartest reporter here.” he stated honestly before trying to push by them but they wouldn’t let him through.

                Luckily, a car pulled up behind the group and it was Gabriel’s. Sam was in the passenger seat in some clothes that fit him properly and looked back at Gabriel. “Just go grab him?” he asked not liking how they were all attacking Castiel.

                “Yeah moose, go get him.” he smirked at him and slapped his shoulder as encouragement.

                Sam got out of the car and easily pushed his way through the crowd, his height definitely helping. He rested a hand on Castiel’s shoulder. “Gabriel wanted me to come get you.” he stated.

              Castiel looked back at him confused as to why his brother sent someone else to come get him. “Okay, where is he?”

                Sam grabbed his arm to help him stay close as he pushed his way through again but the crowd tried to follow after them. “Please move.” he demanded and got Castiel into the passenger seat and he got into the back.

                Gabriel took them to their work figuring it would be a little calmer there and while on the way he explained who Sam was. Castiel was definitely surprised his brother didn’t try to get some publicity or freaked out about Sam being what he was. It was nice though because that meant he had to care for him or needed his help, he hoped it was the formal. When the car pulled up to the warehouse, there were people watching the group closely as they got out of the car. There was no one in New York City that didn’t know what happened and since these people knew Castiel better than anyone else, they were definitely intrigued.

                “So, you are Dean’s brother?” he asked Sam turning to look at him for a few seconds.

                “Yeah and I would admit that I was worried about him but really I just wanted to come up here. This was my dream to come here and live beside humans.” he stated and even though Dean’s experience had turned out pretty bad he still wanted to be here. He knew he had to be extremely careful and with Gabriel understanding the need to be careful around water he could help, if he wouldn’t mind him staying.

                “How about we save that talk when we’re in the office?” suggested Gabriel seeing how the employees were staring at them. Castiel nodded not wanting another merman to be stuck against their will at the hands of the government. He led the group in and everyone was staring at them including Jerry. “Hey Allen.” tried greeting Jerry but the group just continued past him. The group paused momentarily to look down from the top floor to see everyone still staring and Sam couldn’t help but feel slightly uncomfortable because what if they knew he was Dean’s brother? “What are you looking at?!” yelled Gabriel tired of everyone being obnoxious. “You never seen a guy who slept with a fish before? Get back to work!” he asked before pushing his brother into the office. Castiel did not look pleased by how Gabriel went around saying that but he would talk about it later.

                “Mr. Novak, you have a million messages!” exclaimed Mrs. Stimler and today she was dressed like she was just getting out of bed. She was wearing a night cap and a buttoned up nightgown around her normal clothes for the day. Mrs. Stimler was putting her glasses back on and picked up a sticky note. “You got calls from the CBS, NBC, ABC, AP, UPI, Ted Turner, Time, Newsweek, Marineland, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and Mrs. Paul.” she read off still smiling away. Castiel got distracted by the newspaper that was on her desk and read the title of the front page story. _Merman Found, Held by Feds_. That only reminded him of how Dean looked and he knew he was in trouble, a lot of trouble. Dean wouldn’t be able to leave, ever and the government would soon find a way to completely hide him from the face of the Earth if he let them.

                “Not now Mrs. Stimler.” stated Gabriel holding up his hand and continued to go into Castiel’s office only closing the door once Sam was inside.

                Sam needed to help his brother to get out of there. “Where is my brother?” he asked Castiel.

                “I don’t know they blindfolded me to keep me from knowing the location.”

                Castiel pointed to a part of the story where they were talking about him. “Fishman?”

                Gabriel shrugged a little, “That’s what they’re calling you on TV as well but it could be worse. Personally, I think it’s kind of cute because it’s pretty obvious you loved Dean so at least they’re making you guys more of a couple.” Sam wasn’t going to say anything since his input wouldn’t be helpful at the time. He could tell that Castiel was torn up a little by the revelation and he didn’t really want Gabriel making it worse but he was right now at the mercy of the two people who knew his secret. Castiel sat down on the sofa and Gabriel at a chair on the other side of his desk. Sam sat down next to him and Gabriel smiled a little at him. “So, how is he?”

                “How is he?” asked Castiel trying to think of how he wanted to answer that. “He’s a merman.” he nodded slowly. “I don’t understand…all my life I’ve been waiting for someone and when I find that person he’s a fish.” Out of all the ways his life could have played out, this had to be one of the oddest outcomes.

                “Nobody said love is perfect.” pointed out Gabriel and glanced over at Sam as he said that. He kind of liked him and it might be a little biased because of how amazing Sam looked naked.

                “You know by now that I don’t expect it to be perfect.” started Castiel getting up from the couch and looking frustrated. He really did like Dean but he didn’t want things to turn out like this. It wasn’t because of Dean being a merman and at the same time it was. He didn’t know how to go about this and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s usually human. Every day people meet and fall in love.”

                Gabriel really didn’t like where this was going and frowned getting up from his chair. He couldn’t believe his brother was really doing this and saying it. “Look what you got, yeah, let’s look at it closely. Let’s take a good look at what you got.” he stressed and the tone is what made Castiel look over at his brother. “People fall in love every day huh?”

                “Yeah.” he said because it always seemed like people were falling in love, being happy, and never having to worry about relationships like he did.

                “That’s a crock!” he yelled at him. “It doesn’t work that way.” Gabriel knew this most of all since most of his relationships ended badly. He actually had a few people that were abusive toward him, physically or verbally and he definitely hadn’t found that one person to fall in love with. “You do remember how happy you are with him right?” he asked and Castiel nodded a little. “Some people will never be that happy. I’ll never be that happy.” he admitted. That really got Sam’s attention because he didn’t see why Gabriel couldn’t be happy. He was a nice man, charming, and very passionate about anything he does. Right now he was showing a lot of passion at helping his brother realize that he was being stressed out to the point he was ruining something good. He hadn’t been here to see how his brother and Castiel interact but knowing that Dean went against their dad’s wishes to come see him, he knew that Castiel was worth it. “What am I talking to you for? You don’t know anything.” he said looking over at Sam. “Come on Sam.” he ordered and Sam didn’t want to leave Castiel there after that whole speech but Gabriel probably thought it would be best.

                Castiel ended up staying in his office for a little longer thinking about everything Gabriel said. He should have said something or at least stopped him from leaving.

                That night, the scientists were still rigorously testing on Dean and were running a blood scan on him now. So far everything seemed the same between a regular human and him. He was dropped back into the tank and at this point he barely fought back. They knew they couldn’t stop the sedation because it was the only way to keep him from fighting and he sank to the bottom when he was dropped into the tank. He barely moved his tail to get around the tank and leaned back against the glass. Walter was watching him and knew that he had only been here barely a day and he looked terrible. He looked sad as he came up to the glass and gained his attention. Dean barely looked at him before glaring and wanting him to go away. “Does he look a little pale?” he asked Ross who was looking over a clipboard of today’s achievements.

                “Ah, that’s a good day’s work.” he smiled at his assistant. “Tomorrow I want to see how he interacts with other marine life and then the internal examination.” he continued ignoring what Walter had asked him.

                The last part of what Ross said really caught his attention and he went to Ross’ side before he could climb the stairs. “Internal?”

                “I want to study his pulmonary system.” he answered simply. “Reproductive organs, everything!” he exclaimed glancing back at the two scientists following him to make sure that they understood what he wanted.

                “Dr. Ross?” called out Walter needing his attention to stay focused on him instead of the incredible specimen they had behind them. Ross finally stopped for more than a few seconds to look at him which made him continue. “Are we considering, how the test subject is responding to the examination procedure?” he asked glancing back at Dean.

                Ross frowned at him and quickly began climbing the stairs again. “I am considering everything!”

                Walter knew he wasn’t and he couldn’t believe how many scientists were going to sit idly by as he slowly killed Dean. “Ah, yes, I’m sure you are Ross.” he exclaimed following underneath the group since it was a catwalk leading into the main office. “How stupid of me! But let me ask…are you considering the possibility that you might be a sadistic pig?!”

                That got the scientist to stop at the door and he turned to look down at Walter through the openings of the grates. “While we are baring our souls here Mr. Kornbluth, I must honestly tell you that I have never considered you a man of science. You’re not a member of my team!” he shouted. “Run along Walter and see if you can’t find a unicorn.” he said exaggerating the first syllable before he stood straight again and walked into the office.

                Walter was still angry at Ross and how he became the lead on the study of the merman as slowly walked back over to the tank. He wished that he could actually take back what he had done and never let what they say get to him. He knew there was a merman and he didn’t need to prove it. He could have gotten everything they were getting if he just began to speak and get to know this _man._ When he came back Dean was curled in on himself and only glanced up at Walter without moving out of his position. Walter was trying to express through his face his deepest apologies and regrets for having him end up here. _I wish I could take it all back._

                As if Dean knew what he thought he looked away from him and closed his eyes trying to get the urge to fight. Walter definitely knew he had screwed up when Dean just blew him off like that and sighed shaking his head. He needed to make this right somehow or he would go crazy. There was no way that he could let them do those examinations, not when they would leave scars and a mental lasting effect.

                Walter wasn’t the only one who was having a sleepless night. Castiel was sitting in his room and looking at some of the things he had bought Dean that were still sitting in the room. It actually didn’t take that long for him to finally snap back into it and quickly get up from his chair.

***

                The next morning, Walter had scheduled a dentist appointment because the two football players that laid into him a couple times had definitely done something to his mouth. It was the only other thing that was aching on his body and hadn’t gotten resolved yet like his neck and arm did. “What’s that?” he asked from the seat as he watched the dentist walk toward him with a needle.

                “Painkiller, Mr. Kornbluth. Whoever punched you, cracked your tooth.” he explained and to get the job done it would cause a lot of pain. “We’ll be very close to the nerve.”

                “I don’t deserve painkiller, just drill.” he demanded through the wad in his mouth giving the dentist a steady look. He may not know just how much pain was in store for him but he really deserved it. Walter’s guilt was extremely high and he was doing anything that he could to make it right, well everything except one.

                The dentist smiled setting the needle aside, “Oh, you want pain? Well, we aim to please.”  He then picked up one of his utensils holding it up so Walter could see what he would be using.

                Right before the dentist could begin drilling the door was pushed open. Castiel was standing in the doorway calling in a few favors to find Walter. “Get out.” he glared.

                “What are you-“

                “Get out!” he yelled.

                 “Ja, ja, ja.” agreed the dentist quickly backing out of the room.

                Walter looked up and instantly recognized him, eyes widening. “Please stay, ahh!” he exclaimed from the small amount of pain from the devices that were hooked to him for his teeth to be fixed. When Castiel focused on closing the door he got out of the chair being pulled back by the cord and just pulled it out of his mouth so he could face the other.

                “Let’s talk.” stated Castiel still in his suit from the dinner and tried to roll up his sleeves a little. Walter knew that he was going to get hurt again and looked around the room focusing on the painkiller needle. He reached for it holding it up as a threat. “Hey, put it down.” he said putting his hands up as a truce. “Put that down.” he repeated going around the chair and Walter slowly followed.

                “Stay away from me.” he demanded.

                “I said ‘Let’s talk’, put it down!”

                “Stay away!”

                The two danced back and forth for a few seconds before Castiel made a quick move to grab at Walter. He was ready still brandishing the needle but when Castiel got close he instantly turned toward the door trying to get out but ran into it. Castiel grabbed his arms trying to calm him down and get the needle out of his hand.

                Walter was making it a difficult struggle and he soon thought he had the perfect time to strike and brought the needle down…right into his own leg. “Oh…” he said as he felt the effects kicking in quickly. He pulled the needle out holding it up and Castiel looked at it feeling bad that he had stabbed himself. Castiel took the needle away and Walter wobbled for a few steps holding the spot on his leg where he had stabbed himself before sitting back down in the chair. Castiel set the needle aside walking around to give them both a chance to cool down. “What a week I’m having!” exclaimed Walter.

                Castiel looked perplexed at how he could say something like that because unlike him, his life wasn’t turned upside down and seen by everyone in New York City. “You’ve destroyed my life, Kornbluth.”

                “I didn’t mean too.” he said defensively. “I just had to prove that I wasn’t crazy.” Castiel was pacing behind Walter and pretty much ignoring everything he was saying. “I’m a man of science.” By being a man of science meant he was more worried about getting the prize, proving his hypothesis, and being known for the biggest discovery of all time. “I just didn’t think about how it would affect you...or him.” he admitted softly. “I’m really a nice guy. If I had friends you could ask them.” he said talking to get himself out of a bad situation and Castiel did ask for them to talk.

                “I’ve been on the phone to every employee in the government calling them sons of bitches.” started out Castiel still not hearing anything Walter had said since he was still going off the adrenaline of his decision. “Nobody could even get in to see him.”

                Walter slowly looked up at him and swallowed. “I can.”

                All the adrenaline that he had paced out of his system was suddenly back in a rush as he grabbed at his arm and pulled him up. Castiel needed them to go now so he could see and help out Dean.  “Come on, come on!” he urged pulling Walter even with his leg being numb. Walter tried his best to walk but he mostly limped while being dragged out of the dentist office making everyone turn their heads and watch them leave the building.

                While Walter was at his dentist appointment and waking up for the day, the scientists were getting ready to do more tests before other doctors arrived to look at him.. Dr. Ross was debriefing everyone but someone raised their hand. “Speak.”

                “Dr. Ross…I believe we need to stop giving him sedatives. He is beginning to get to the point he can’t even speak. His language is slurred and his movements have gotten very, very slow compared to the ones he exhibited when first arriving.” stated the scientist more than a little afraid of how the man would take this bit of news.

                “It is just the side effects and will wear off before we complete the surgery.” he assured him going to put Dean under so that he would not experience any pain as they did the examination.

                The scientist however wasn’t done voicing his concern. “Sir, if we continue to sedate him once we are done with the examination I’m afraid that we will be effecting him in the long run. Not even humans could stand this much sedation in this small period of time.”

               Ross smiled at that pointing at him. “And that’s exactly why we are going to continue sedating him for a little longer. His system is dealing with this type of drug better than a human’s are able to. That’s why we are pushing its limit.” he finished before motioning for them all to get to their spots.

                The scientists put the net back into the water and because of how calm Dean was he didn’t even move as they got the net under him and soon lifted him out of the tank. They got him over to a table and someone was to fill buckets of water as they watched to make sure he stayed wet enough. Ross looked him over and saw the glare in his face but he couldn’t do anything right now. “Fuck…you.”

                “Initial observation, the test subject is relaxed and not stressed so we shouldn’t need to worry about intubation.” he stated as the scientists standing around recorded everything he said. “The merman’s chest shape is normal and not exhibiting any abnormalities with the spines or rib cage.” he said out loud as he felt up and down Dean’s chest slowly before forcing him to sit up enough to run a hand along his back. Ross grabbed a stethoscope and placed it on Dean’s chest. Dean hissed slightly at the coldness but didn’t push it away because he didn’t feel right, he was still slow. After a few minutes Ross pulled the stethoscope out of his ears. “His breathing is a little faster but not too fast for cause of alarm. It could be because there is no presence of gills and his body is trying to transition back to a human’s.” The scientist with the bucket dumped it over Dean earning another hiss before he went to go get more. The examination pretty much continued in the same way with Ross running all the tests and once again not finding many differences. He told them to put Dean back in and looked at the time. “It’s time for me to go get the Swedish doctors, everyone may leave and let Dean off of the sedatives until I get back.” he demanded before leaving the room.

***

                An hour after Dr. Ross left, Gabriel dropped off Walter, Sam, and Castiel at the front of the National History Museum. “Be careful in there gigantor.” he smiled at Sam who shook his head trying to get used to the different nicknames Gabriel had for him and followed the other two quickly.

                “This is a strange place to keep Dean.” stated Castiel as he followed up the rear looking around and was surprised that there was no government presence standing every ten feet.

                “It has one of the biggest research facilities built in behind the museum and that’s why it’s one of the best places to have it.” explained Walter as they walked inside. He went straight to the back where they would check in and then head back to Dean. They were even dressed the part looking like they were ready to do some science, walking around in lab coats and a suit. Sam and Castiel looked very worried but did their best to get past it since they needed to act like scientists that were supposed to be there.

                “Good afternoon, Dr. Kornbluth. I wasn’t expecting you today.” said the officer who was there to check people in and quickly stood up when he saw him trying to come in with guests.

                “These are doctors Jarred and Johanssen from the Stockholm Institution.” he introduced Sam and Castiel pointing to the both of them.

                “I thought that they were coming later with Dr. Ross.”

                Walter quickly had to think of another excuse in order to get them in. “No, no that was to fool the press.” he started realizing this was a good way to go. If they wanted the mermaid to stay hidden they had to keep the press and anyone that could bring harm to their research away…like themselves.

                The army man turned to the two still smiling. “Hey, uh, you know, I’m half Swedish. Hej! Hur var din resa varit hittills?” he asked the Castiel and Sam.

                Castiel couldn’t help but look over at Sam and they were both trying not to look worried. They really had no idea what the man just said but they had to keep the charade up a little longer. Sam started to say yes and Castiel followed suit. “Ja.” they both said several times while nodding and smiling. Walter really didn’t like where this was going and looked back at the army man.

                “Well!” he exclaimed beginning to walk past the guards and the other two followed after him but were quickly stopped.

                “Just a second.” he said eyeing the two doctors. “Vad är två svenska forskare att göra så långt bort från Sverige?”

                There was definitely slight fear in both of their faces realizing they were about to get caught but Sam, as awkward as it was for him to admit it he learned a little bit of Swedish. He just didn’t know what he would be saying because it was footage that Gabriel had him watch when he got the call from Castiel. As they waited for Castiel and Walter to come pick them up he explained that this was the fastest way to learn Swedish since he could learn quickly by listening. He didn’t understand a lot of what was going on other than Gabriel had to keep forcing him to keep watching. “Hej, älskling! Jag fick en tolv tums penis.” he stated doing his best to remember what the people said in the videos. That time the army man smiled and stepped aside to let the group in and when Sam passed he patted his shoulder still smiling as he went to his post. The three men quickly turned a right and walked down the hallway.

                Castiel looked up at Sam with wide eyes. “How did you do that?” he asked.

                Sam was going to explain it the same way Gabriel had to him in hopes that Castiel would understand it better than he did. “Gabriel wanted me to try learning some Swedish just in case we got caught and he let me watch some of the videos he had on hand…” he started and right away Castiel began to look worried. He didn’t even want Sam to finish his sentence. “He said that the only Swedish movies he had were nudie films.” he finished.

                “Yeah, I figured that.” sighed Castiel feeling bad that he had to sit through his brother’s porn even if it got them past the security.

                “Afternoon Buckwalter.” greeted Walter but Buckwalter had stepped out trying to show a strong standing position.

                “Sorry, Dr. Kornbluth but I’m not allowed to let anyone in until Dr. Ross comes back with them Swede people.” he stated keeping a serious face and not wanting to be pushed aside this time. Things were starting to get bad in the papers about how the government was holding someone against their will. Publicity wasn’t normally a problem but when people began to get angry in this short amount of time, things could turn bad real quick.

                “These are the Swedish doctors.” pointed out Walter stepping up to him with just as much authority and strength that Buckwalter was trying to establish.

                Buckwalter looked skeptical as they got closer and pointed at the two doctors. “These are…Swedes? Ah, come here.” he said motioning for Walter to come closer and Sam began to look like he was pleading for the last guard standing in their way to let them through. “Isn’t that one right there, kinda dark?” he asked.

                Walter knew that Buckwalter wasn’t the sharpest knife in the cutlery which is why it wouldn’t be much of a problem to get past this guard. “He’s dirty from the trip!” he exclaimed and Buckwalter instantly began nodding and understanding. “Come on Buckwalter, let us in!”

                “No, no, no-“

                “What are you afraid of?” asked Walter suddenly having a small smile on his face. “Do you think we’re going to steal the merman?” he asked and even turned back to the other two beginning to laugh. Sam and Castiel got the idea and began to laugh with him. “What are we going to do?! Fold him in half and put him in a suitcase?!” he continued laughing and the other two behind him laughed a little more.

                Buckwalter was officially blindsided and nodded. “Okay, I guess it’s alright if you go in.”

                Dean was slowly getting complete feeling in his body when the lights came back on in the tank. That only meant some people had come back and he was going to make sure no one did anymore testing on him. He looked up but what he saw stopped him in his tracks. He didn’t really expect to see Castiel let alone his brother coming into this room. Castiel stepped up first and he had a smile beginning to form on his face along with Dean’s. He was glad to see both of them but mostly Castiel. Last time they were together Castiel didn’t seem to want anything to do with him. The only clue that Dean was happier than he looked was the heart monitor slowly beeping faster and when Castiel ran at the tank he swam to the top. Castiel climbed the moving set of stairs and leaned over to kiss Dean who quickly returned it. Sam was amazed at how much love he could see in his brother. After all the women constantly trying to get his attention and all of them failing back at the colony made him though he wouldn’t find love. He was glad it went that way or he wouldn’t have met Castiel. Dean was so glad Castiel came back because he was beginning to think he was going to be left there to be killed.

                “Hi.” smiled Castiel biting his lower lip. “I’m sorry it took so long.”

                “Damn right it took you a fucking long time. You’re…a bastard but I love you.” said Dean quickly wrapping a hand around his neck to pull him back down for another kiss. He was really hoping when he had the chance to get free from the scientists that Castiel would come back. Even if it was just to say that he hated him and didn’t want anything to do with him.

                “I love you too Dean.” he said smiling widely at Dean and running a hand through his hair. Castiel didn’t know why he dared to act like this was a problem. He loved Dean for who he was, not just for what he looked like. “I love you so much.” Castiel stared at Dean looking over his face and rested his forehead against his. “Is this the big secret or should I be expecting something else?” he teased.

                Dean smiled shaking his head, “No, I swear this is it.” he assured him as he looked over Castiel the same way he was with him. “Cas, don’t feel guilty alright? I put you in a hell of a position and I want you to know that it’s alright.” he stated surprised to hear it coming out of his mouth but the one thing he felt so sure about it, no matter how much he wanted to suppress it, was Castiel came back because he loved him.

                Castiel shook his head and kissed Dean quickly again. “I have a right to feel guilty for leaving you the way I did.”

                “They would have forced you anyway.” he pointed out.

                “I still feel guilty for almost leaving you and especially when you needed me most.” he said grabbing his hand and never wanted to let go again.

                Dean smiled at that and looked over at the other two and his eyes narrowed as they focused on Sam. “What are you doing here brother?” he asked not liking how he was here and could be easily caught if something went wrong.

                Sam walked up to the tank and only needed to climb a few rungs before his head was above the side of the tank. “I came here because I couldn’t stay home anymore and when I met Gabriel and saw you on television…I had to help. There was no way I was going to leave you here.” he said biting his lip as he looked at his brother’s tail. It looked terrible and he could tell right away that he was either sick or very close to being sick. “They haven’t hurt you, right?”

                “No they haven’t and this is the first time I’ve been able to move as quickly as I want.” he stated frowning deeply because he would have already hurt someone for what they were doing to him. It was just simple tests and they didn’t open him up but that didn’t mean he was happy about it. “What are you guys going to do?”

                Outside, Buckwalter was singing to himself and rocking up to the tip of his toes and back to his heels. “Well, left my wife in New Orleans, forty eight kids and a can of beans. Left, right, one, two-“

                Castiel was more than ready to act and do anything possible to get Dean so he ran outside. “Oh my god!” he yelled quickly looking at Buckwalter.

                “What?!” exclaimed Buckwalter.

                “Stand back! Cover his face!” he yelled as he went inside again to help Sam carry a person wrapped around in blankets and they were limp.

                “What happened?! What’s going on in there?! What happened?!” began panicking Buckwalter knowing he should have never let them into the room.

                “That creature.” started Castiel.

                “Dr. Johanssen bent down to examine the creature and suddenly he attacked! His fingers were sharp and clawed at his face to where he’s not recognizable! We need to get to the hospital.” he said hurriedly because there was no time if they wanted to save the scientist. Buckwalter tried to get to the door but Sam quickly shook his head. “Don’t go in there! He’s rabid and he’ll hurt you before you can do anything to him.” he warned.

                Buckwalter watched as they began carrying Walter by him but he wasn’t done panicking. “I knew something like this was going to happen. What should I do, what should I do?!”

                Castiel decided to speak up again knowing exactly what would give them a few extra minutes. “Oh stop whining and seal off the entire area.”

                “I’ll call the pentagon.” he smiled.

                “Pentagon?! What do you want to do? Cause a national panic?” he asked.

                “I don’t want to die!”

                “Just don’t go in there or let anyone else in until we get back.” explained Castiel before they began walking down the hall again needing to get out of there now.

                The two of them actually got outside running the whole way and Gabriel had pulled up ready to pick them up. He tried not to look panicked himself since now they just needed to get to water, through rush hour traffic. A few of the people who were walking into the museum were looking at them strangely but they never made eye contact or tried to explain since they didn’t want anyone more suspicious then they already could be. Gabriel leaned over and opened the door so they could push Walter inside and the person finally began to move turning around in the seat and taking off the towel around his face. It was Dean as the other two quickly climbed into the back so that Gabriel could speed off down the road. “Where are we going?” asked Dean right away looking at Gabriel before back at the other two.

                “To the water, you have to get out of here.” stated Castiel feeling bad that he was pushing him away but it would be safer if he left. He moved to put a hand on Dean’s shoulder when he saw his face fall and he moved to grab his hand.

                “I don’t want to leave.” he admitted.

                “You need too.”

                Sam hated to jump in to agree especially when he saw how well Castiel and Dean connected. “Dean, you need to go back home.” he said softly.

                Dean frowned at the two of them and looked back in front but held onto Castiel’s hand tightly. Gabriel was doing the best they could but they soon ran into a traffic jam and he cursed honking the horn. “Come on!” he yelled.

                Castiel looked back behind them, “I don’t see anyone, we might have gotten out of there without suspicion.”

                While they were getting away Dr. Ross had arrived with the actual doctors from Sweden. He walked up to the army gentleman earning the normal energetic greeting. “Good afternoon Dr. Ross.” he smiled widely. “Who are your guests?” he asked looking at the other two.

                “Doctors Jarred and Johanssen from the Swedish Institution.” he answered motioning for them to follow him and began to walk by but the army man quickly got up from his chair looking confused.

                “Uh, Sir?” he asked as Ross turned around to face him. “Dr. Kornbluth has already arrived with the scientists.”

                Ross was instantly worried by that and quickly walked to the room. He ended up running into the door as he tried to push it open. “What’s wrong with these doors Buckwalter?” he demanded as he motioned for other army men down the hall to break it open. It only took them a few tries before they broke the glass and pulled the pole out that was keeping the doors closed. He then quickly marched toward the tank turning on a light as he did so and his eyes narrowed. “He’s gone, Walter took him.” he declared and glanced around the room quickly before taking out his phone to call the security.

                Dean was glad things were going well even with the small traffic but his heart sank when he looked in the mirror and saw large vehicles slowly pushing their way through the traffic. “I think our luck has changed.”

                “What?” asked everyone looking back and Gabriel instantly looked forward and drove the car onto the sidewalk. He didn’t care how badly he drove or how close they would be to cause accidents because they needed to get away.

                “We need to start thinking of a backup plan.” stated Gabriel not sure of when they could get far enough away to let them out so he could get Sam away. He barely wanted Sam to go do this since they might find out about him being Dean’s brother. Gabriel got them into a less busy street keeping in mind of where they needed to go.

                Castiel knew he would get caught and in trouble along with Walter but at least this way he could get Dean into the water. “Just get us close to a dock, drop us off, and get out of here.” he answered and Gabriel nodded.

                The army vehicle quickly followed after them driving onto the same street and the only thing holding them back and keeping them in their eye was the eyes in the sky. The group didn’t know that there was a helicopter watching them when all they wanted to do was escape to the docks. Gabriel was really taking risks as he made a sharp turn into a park with one army truck passing them and the other following. They were about to get out of the park when they had to take a turn to the right to avoid another truck from hitting them. Gabriel finally got a break as he turned down a one way street and the helicopter lost them. He continued to drive and only slowed down for a few seconds when a cab’s back end was sticking out enough to where he had to be careful as he drove by. After that it was straight shot to the docks. The army vehicle following them a little farther than before came up to the taxi honking their horn and the passenger stuck his head out when they stopped seeing that he wasn’t moving the vehicle at all. “Hey, Mac! Move the vehicle!” he demanded.

                “Up yours gomer, I’m waiting for a fare.” he stated after blowing out some smoke and taking another drag from his cigarette. The army man really didn’t take it that well and glared at him before going to the back and getting about five people to come out and help him. They all went to the side of the taxi and he ordered them to lift. In a few seconds the taxi was on its side and out of their way. The man saluted the cab driver before hopping back into the vehicle after everyone else so they could continue their pursuit.

                Gabriel finally got to the docks and broke through a latched gate just so he could come to a screeching halt. “Okay, you and Cassy, get out and we’ll try to lead them away.” he stated as Castiel and Dean got out of the car wearing one of the lab coats.

                “Thank you Gabriel and you better make sure my brother gets out of here safely.” he warned because he would find a way to come back if his brother ended up caught.

                “Don’t worry about it.” he assured Dean and once the doors were closed he took off making sure Sam didn’t have the time to step out of the vehicle. “Don’t worry Sam, Dean will get out of here just fine.”

              Sam still couldn’t help but look back at his brother biting his lip. “He doesn’t deserve to be taken away from Castiel.” he stated.

                “I know but maybe they’ll figure out a way?” offered Gabriel as he turned the same way they came in hoping to have the army vehicles follow them.

                Castiel and Dean stood at the end of the dock and Castiel had a good grip on the lab coat. Dean held onto Castiel’s shirt as well not yet ready to let go. “I was ready to stay with you forever.” he said and still wanted too.

                “I know and I was too.” admitted Castiel after he had gotten over the shock of what he was. “But now they know who you are and will never leave you alone.”

                “You know that if I leave, I won’t be able to come back.” he said trying to hide his sadness but it wasn’t working and Castiel looked just as sad as him.

                “I wish I could go with you.” he said softly resting their foreheads together.

                Dean’s eyes widened slightly and he suddenly thought of something else that they could do. “Cas, you can come with me.”

                “How?”

                “It can be done.” he repeated beginning to smile again.

                “How?” he asked again.

                Dean didn’t know when he’d be able to tell Castiel this but it was the perfect time now. “Remember when you were little and you fell off the ship?” he asked earning a nod. “You were safe under the water weren’t you? Even if you couldn’t swim you felt safe.”

                Castiel looked surprised and a little confused. “Yeah…I did. I felt safe and at the time it was the strangest thing.”

                “You were with me. That was the day I first left our colony and I ran into your boat. When you jumped in I thought I was going to get hurt but I just knew I was safe. When you’re with me under the water, you will be perfectly safe.” he explained grabbing his hand hoping that he would agree to come with. “We can even leave for a little while, swim to another spot in the United States and hide until we can come back to New York City.”

                “I was? I mean, it was you? I didn’t think that was real…” he smiled widely and hugged Dean tightly who returned it quickly. “But…what if we can never come back? I don’t want to leave Gabriel here.” he said softly knowing that it was ruining the plans that Dean thought of on the fly and that would separate them but his brother. “Family means a lot to me.”

                Dean completely understood and bit his lip watching Castiel. He could hear the sirens and a helicopter closing in but he focused only on Castiel. This was going to be the last time he saw him and he didn’t want to go. He quickly leaned in and kissed Castiel deeply trying to hold him close. He wanted to remember everything about Castiel and wanted this kiss to last as long as possible. Dean waited until they were both short on air and he pulled away looking at Castiel’s lips before focusing on his eyes. He really could have lived just looking at the ocean through Castiel’s eyes for the rest of his life other than being away from him. The helicopter flew above their heads and a man stuck his head out holding a megaphone.

                “You are under arrest. Let the creature go.” he demanded and Dean glared up at them not going back.

                “You have to go Dean!” he yelled over the noise of the helicopter looking sad, scared but determined. “You have to go!” he repeated. Dean’s eyes focused on something behind him making him look angrier and Castiel looked behind him. There was one of the army trucks that must not have fallen for Gabriel’s trick and he looked back now looking panicked. Dean needed to get out of here before they had the chance to capture him again. “I love you Dean.” Dean grabbed his hand tightly refusing to let go no matter how close he was to being caught. He didn’t want to go and it was written all over his face. “Go!” demanded Castiel and squeezed his hand before letting go completely. “Leave.” he said softly.

                Dean pulled away and dived into the water trying to focus on just getting away now. They had risked everything to get him out and he would have to learn to live with just the knowledge that Castiel loved him instead of actually having him. The helicopter began following where Dean went and gave a quick order to the men on the dock. “Get that guy!”

                “Leave him alone!” he yelled trying to get them to back off. “Leave him alone!” Castiel looked behind him seeing at least ten army men coming toward him and he looked back out at the water where the helicopter was descending. Right below it Dean’s head appeared to wave one last goodbye. Now that he was in the water he wasn’t worried about them catching him because he was faster, this was his element. “Dean…” he said softly as he waved back and something clicked in his head. His brother would understand, he had Sam to worry about and keep him company, and the one person he would ever love he was about to lose. “Dean!” he yelled jumping into the water right before the army men could stop him and he began trying to swim toward where he last saw him. He hoped that Dean hadn’t gone too far and saw him jump in.

                Under the water Dean was swimming around letting his tail grow and took off the lab coat before he saw someone else in the water. His eyes widened when he saw the body begin to sink and he quickly swam over to it. He was very glad he did as he noticed it was Castiel and he got close enough to kiss him deeply. While he was saving Castiel men were jumping out of the helicopter dressed in scuba gear and heading toward them. Castiel quickly opened his eyes and smiled when he saw Dean. It didn’t matter to him that he was under water and not needing any air as he quickly pulled Dean closer to kiss him deeply again.

                The couple finally heard the bubbles from the group of scuba divers but Dean was more than ready to fight. He glared at them moving in front of Castiel. All of them swam to circle the two and the first to attack made an attempt to grab at Dean. He quickly twisted in the water hitting the man with his tail and Castiel grabbed at the man trying to get at him going straight for his mask. Castiel got a good grip of it and pulled it off to force him to go back up to the surface since he needed air. Dean was making it impossible to get a good grip on him as he twisted and moved faster than anyone else. He nailed one in between his legs with his tail and began grabbing at masks like Castiel. Castiel even went as far as biting into one of their legs not much of a fighter in the water that Dean was but he soon felt a strong arm around his waist. He was about to attack when he saw Dean’s smile and in less than a second Dean kicked his tail hard. They quickly gained speed to get far away from the disorientated group of divers and only left a mass of bubbles behind.


	8. Epilogue

                Almost a year had passed since Castiel and Dean got away from their captors and still to this day Dr. Ross and every scientist that are still fighting to find Dean were getting a lot of bad attention. Scientists were all fighting saying that the merman was under their custody and they had every right to do whatever they needed and every right to find their property again. Most citizens didn’t agree with them and that is why Gabriel and Sam were having a little celebration tonight. The last ship that was on the hunt for Dean was finally docked and locked down. Dr. Ross didn’t have the backing anymore to hunt Dean down and there was a group of people who were more than ready to step up to the plate if another merman or mermaid was caught and held against their will.

                “The food is almost done.” called out Gabriel. It wasn’t anything fancy, just some fish, lobsters and steaks, a mini feast for Gabriel, Sam and their company if they ever arrived.

                Sam didn’t need to be yelled at to hear because he was paying very close attention to the seafood that was being cooked. When he got around to trying cooked lobster and fish that he enjoyed in the sea he loved it even more. Gabriel had to have the extra task of making sure Sam wouldn’t eat anything until it was actually time for dinner. Sam went over to where he was keeping some of the fish and began to reach for the container but a slap on the ass stopped him. His face turned a little red as he looked back at Gabriel. “You can just say stop.”

                “I know but that works better and I can feel your ass.” winked Gabriel as he went back to cooking and was so glad to hear someone knocking on his door. “About time, they can make sure you won’t be eating the meal as it gets off the pan.”

                Sam quickly went over to the door and opened it up smiling widely. “Hello Dean.”

                “Heya Sammy.” smiled Dean wearing a hat and a large coat to still hide himself because Castiel didn’t want to push their luck too far without having some precaution. The brothers quickly hugged each other tightly and after a few seconds they pulled away.

                “Hello again Castiel.”

                “My brother isn’t going all out on the food again is he?” he asked smelling a lot of different things from the door as they were led inside and went straight to the kitchen. “You didn’t need to cook this much.”

                “Yes I did! It’s not every day that someone gets their brother and their lover back after nearly a year of worrying and thinking that they could possibly be caught somewhere else without the news ever getting to tell about it.” he explained as Castiel walked up to him and they both shared a tight hug as well. “I’m so glad to see you safe.”

                Castiel returned it always knowing that he would be safe if he was with Dean. “I was completely safe the whole time.” he assured his brother.

                Gabriel pulled away waving it off, “Of course you were!”

                “So things finally cooled down?” he asked.

                Gabriel nodded but also saw how many layers Dean was wearing. “Yet it looks like you didn’t trust the papers all that much.”

                Castiel knew that he was being paranoid but he really didn’t want to lose Dean again. “We might go away for another year just to make sure things really do cool down.” he stated.

                “Well you don’t have to worry about me, I got Sam as company and he is _great_ company.” he smirked as he finally finished the last of the lobster. “Time to eat!” he exclaimed.

                The four of them sat down at the table and got their plates made up before everyone began to talk about the past year. Castiel and Dean went first as they explained they traveled around the borders of the United States, some cities knew about what happened, no one ever recognized them, and in general they had a lot of fun. Gabriel and Sam explained that they had gotten together over the past year and no one suspected Sam for being another merman. It probably helped that Sam and Dean only looked alike in small ways. They also tried to keep in touch with Walter but it was difficult because of where they had him kept until just recently and they didn’t want attention brought to them either. All in all everyone’s lives had gotten better except for the people who held Dean captive.

              Before Dean and Castiel left to go into hiding again for a while Sam pulled Dean aside. “Did you ever go back home?” he asked.

                “No, I didn’t.” he answered a little worried as to what their dad may be thinking but they actually belonged here and not back with the colony. “I wanted to stay with the humans and especially Cas. Dad might not have liked me coming back with one of them so I guess he’ll just have to think we died…”

                “It’s for the better Dean.” he assured him knowing how much he loved to listen to their dad. “You and I are both happy and that’s all that matters.”

                Dean nodded slowly at that and smiled. “Yeah, I’m definitely happy.” he said giving his brother one more tight hug before Dean and Castiel said their goodbyes one more time and left the apartment.

                “Now that they are gone, how about we go to the bedroom?” asked Gabriel wrapping his arms around Sam.

                “We spent most of the day in the bedroom.” he reminded Gabriel still surprised at how much stamina Gabriel had, especially at any mention of having sex.

                “I know but it would be a nice way to finish our celebration.” he smirked standing on his tiptoes so he could peck his lips before dragging him off to the bedroom.

                Dean and Castiel were holding hands as they walked along the beach enjoying the sight at night especially when the moon was as big as it is now. “I’m so glad I went with you Dean.”

                “Me too Cas.” he smiled at him. Dean was pretty sure that if Castiel didn’t come along with he would have went back home and he would have never gotten away again. “Where would you like to go next?” he asked.

                Castiel was thinking about where they should go to let more time pass and since they hadn’t gone there yet because of the distance he felt like it was the perfect place. “Hawaii?” he suggested.

                Dean smiled at that and kissed his cheek. “Alright, Hawaii.” he agreed before getting undressed and jumping into the water. Castiel moved slower than him because he loved to watch as Dean’s legs quickly transitioned into a tail and as he walked into the deeper water Dean swam up to him. “Slow poke.”

                “Maybe.” he said before kissing him deeply and Dean wrapped his arms around Castiel before using his body to lean back pulling Castiel into the water with him.


End file.
